madeleine
nounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈmad(ə)lɪn//
- United Kingdom//ˈmad(ə)lɛn//
- United States//ˈmædələn//
- United States//ˌmædəˈleɪn//
A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
noun
- 1
A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray […] my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane.
Madeleine batter can be made in advance and refrigerated.
- 2
figurativeSomething which brings back a memory; a source of nostalgia or evocative memories.
The Robe was thus fixed in my mind as a symbol, and in my memory as a madeleine, of Jewish evil.
Every five years or so, in the middle of another task, I'll look at them and a particular cover will bring memory flooding back like a madeleine.
My madeleine moment happened early on Friday, while pot smoke drifted in the air as I waited for a shuttle to the polo fields where Coachella takes place.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French madeleine, from earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the given name Madeleine (“Magdalene”), of uncertain reference: attributed in some sources to a 19th-century pastry cook Madeleine Paulmier, whose existence is now considered dubious. In sense 2, used with reference to the cake's function in the extract below, taken from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.
Forms
- plural
- madeleines
madeleine · A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
Madeleine · A female given name from French, variant of Madeline.Madeline · A female given name from French.mademoiselle · A courtesy title for an unmarried woman in France or a…