Ramekin

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɹæm(ɪ)kɪn/

Definitions

1. A miniature dish often made of ceramic or glass that is used for baking and presenting single servings of food items
2. A small, usually oven-safe container designed to hold and serve individual portions of various dishes, particularly in culinary contexts
3. A small, decorative vessel typically made of heat-resistant material that is employed for serving or baking individual servings of food items

Etymology: Ramekin arrived in English by way of French, where "ramequin" named a cheese dish. The French word probably came from a dialectal Dutch term, "rammeken", for a toasted-bread dish, or from a Low German word, "ramken", meaning cream. Those two roots hint at the original food: a warm, cheese-soaked or creamy preparation, with the vessel named for what it held rather than for the dish itself. The English word is built from "ream", a Middle English word for cream, plus the diminutive suffix "-kin", meaning "little". A ramekin is thus literally a little cream-container, the same kind of formation as "mannikin", a small man. The shape of the word, a diminutive attached to a dairy term, still reflects a time when the object was defined by the small portion it held.

Synonyms: dish, bowl, container, cup, casserole