Krispies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of breakfast cereal made from toasted rice that is often enjoyed with milk
2. A sweetened, crunchy snack or dessert ingredient commonly found in recipes like treats or bars
3. A fun name sometimes used to refer to crispy, puffed snacks that are light and airy in texture

Etymology: Before it named a snack ingredient, "crisp" meant curled. It comes from Latin "crispus," meaning curly or wavy, and English used it for curled hair and rippled surfaces long before it described something brittle. The sense of "brittle and easily broken" came later, from the idea of curled leaves or pastry crumbling under pressure. The "-ies" ending is an informal diminutive, the same kind of ending seen in "goodies" and "hippies." Kellogg's trademarked "Rice Krispies" for its puffed-rice cereal, which was introduced in 1928, and the name turned a common adjective into a brand. The "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" sound-effect characters followed in the 1930s. The sweet bar made with the cereal, marshmallow, and butter came from the company's own promotion. Kellogg's published the recipe on its packaging around 1939 to 1941, and the bars spread widely from there. Because of this, "krispies" in recipes usually refers to the cereal, even though the word began as an ordinary description of texture.

Synonyms: crisps, crispies, rice krispies, cereal treats, snap cereals