Fondues

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A dish consisting of melted cheese served in a communal pot for dipping bread or vegetables
2. A culinary preparation where ingredients are cooked in a liquid, such as cheese or chocolate, usually enjoyed socially
3. A style of cooking that involves heating a substance until it liquefies, allowing for shared enjoyment and dipping items into it

Etymology: "Fondues" is simply the plural of "fondue," so the story belongs to the singular. English took the dish's name unchanged from French, where "fondue" is the feminine past participle of "fondre," meaning "to melt." The word thus describes its own contents: a pot of cheese that has been melted until it can be dipped into. French "fondre" comes from Latin "fundere," "to pour, melt, or cast," the same root that gives English "fuse" and "foundry." That lineage explains why the dish is named for a process rather than an ingredient: the cheese is defined by being liquefied. Because the borrowing is unadapted, English speakers have kept the French spelling and the plural "-s," which is why "fondues" looks like an ordinary English noun but carries the French word's original form.