frangipani

frangipani

English

Plumeria rubra flowers

Plumeria rubra tree

Alternative forms

• frangipane

Etymology

From French frangipane, from Italian frangipane. Possibly named after Muzio Frangipane, a 16th-century marquess of the Italian noble Frangipani family, who invented a plumeria-scented perfume. The name Frangipane derives from frangere (“to break”) +‎ pane (“bread”), a reference to the family's distribution of bread in time of famine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌfrænd͡ʒɪˈpɑːnɪ/, /ˌfrænd͡ʒɪˈpænɪ/

Noun

frangipani (countable and uncountable, plural frangipanis or frangipani)

1. Any of several tropical American shrubs and trees of the genus Plumeria, having fragrant, showy, funnel-shaped flowers of a wide range of colours from creamy to red.

   Synonym: plumeria

   • 2022 November 26, Virginia Feito, “Sweating Through a Honeymoon in Paradise”, in The New York Times‎:

     I casually let this information drop as our concierge drives us through the resort in a buggy, a frangipani flower tucked behind his ear. He promises to fix the bug problem and drops us off at the lobby.

2. A perfume obtained from this plant or imitating the odour of its flowers.
3. Alternative form of frangipane (“cream made from ground almonds; pastry filled with this cream”).
   • 2010 November 24, Amanda Hesser, “Recipe Redux: Fyrstekake (Royal Cake), 1963”, in The New York Times Magazine‎:

     Lahlou baked a cardamom frangipani and cut it into pieces as a base for roasted chicken. (Well, I used chicken; he used squab. Use whatever bird you fancy.) Then he topped the frangipani and poultry with kale and leaf-thin sugar-and-cardamom-sprinkled phyllo rectangles — made by baking them between baking sheets — like a savory mille-feuille.

Derived terms

• native frangipani (Hymenosporum flavum)

 

Related terms

• frangipane

 

Translations

any of several tropical American shrubs and trees of the genus Plumeria

Burmese: တရုတ်စံကား (my) (ta.rutcamka:) French: frangipanier (fr) m German: Frangipani f Hungarian: frangipáni (hu) Italian: frangipane f Khmer: ចំប៉ី (km) (cɑmpəy) Lao: ຈຳປາ (cham pā), ລັ່ນທົມ (lan thom), ຈຳປີ (cham pī) Thai: ลั่นทม (th), ลีลาวดี (th)

Further reading

• “frangipani”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.