Patties

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, flat round cake usually made from ground meat or legumes, often fried or grilled as a food item
2. A round flattened portion of ground beef or plant-based ingredients, typically cooked and served in sandwiches
3. A disk-shaped food item composed of minced meat or vegetables, often found in various cuisines and meals

Etymology: "Patties" is the plural of "patty," and the singular has a longer story than its plump, flat shape suggests. It began as a small pie. Its ancestor was "pattipan," meaning something baked in a small pan, and that name came from the French "pâté," a paste of ground meat or liver, which itself grew from "pâte," meaning pastry, dough, or batter. So the flat round food we know today was once a little pastry, and the sense of a shallow pan shaped the name before the shape of the food settled into the flat disc. The word belongs to a family of close cousins. "Pasty" and "pastie," meaning a meat pie, are doublets, arising from the same French source by a separate path into English. "Pâté" and "pate" for a cheese portion are relatives too, and the whole group connects to "paste" and even "pasta," since all trace back to the same idea of kneaded dough.

Synonyms: cakes, fritters