gingerbread
nounEtymology
From Middle English gyngebred, gyngebrede, from Old French gingembras, gingimbrat (“preserved ginger”), from Medieval Latin *gingimbrātus (“gingered”, presumably referring to ginger that perhaps had a pharmaceutical use for some medicinal preparation), with the intrusive m added to gingiber, from Latin zingiber (“ginger”), of earlier Sanskrit origin, through Ancient Greek ζιγγίβερις (zingíberis). The third syllable was earlier confounded with bread, and the insertion of an r in the second syllable completed the semblance of a compound word: ginger + bread.
- derived from ζιγγίβερις
- derived from gingembras
- inherited from gyngebred
Definitions
A type of cake whose main flavoring is ginger.
Something ersatz
Something ersatz; something showy but insubstantial.
A flamboyant Victorian-era architectural style.
- For a time modern architects took a starkly functional approach to the design of houses, emphasizing clean, uncluttered lines and rejecting most forms of wall ornamentation as dust-catching gingerbread.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
To decorate or embellish in an ornate or intricate way.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for gingerbread. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA