Quiche

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kiːʃ/

Definitions

1. A savory baked dish consisting of a pastry crust filled with eggs, cream, cheese, and various other ingredients such as vegetables or meat
2. A type of pastry filled with a mixture of eggs, cream, cheese, and often additional ingredients like vegetables or meats, which is then baked until set
3. A dish made from a crust that holds a custard-like filling of eggs, cream, and cheese, typically combined with various meats or vegetables before baking

Etymology: The French "quiche" comes from the Lorraine dialect of the Rhine Franconian region, where "Küeche" meant simply "cake." That word traces back through Middle High German "kuoche" and Old High German "kuocho" to a Proto-Germanic root that also gave English "cookie," and it is related to "cake" itself, both descending from an ancient base meaning "ball-shaped object." A pastry whose name means "cake" is, in a sense, a baked round object given a dish of eggs and cream. Something else is worth knowing: the word has a curious cousin in Persian, "kuku," which also denotes a baked egg-based dish, a reminder of how far such preparations spread across the old world. In the twenty-first century the word picked up an entirely different meaning. In the 2013 Australian sitcom "Ja'mie: Private School Girl," it was used as slang, defined there as "a step above hot," and it has since been applied to sexually attractive people.

Synonyms: tart, pie