flan
/flɑn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.48 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A baked tart with a sweet or savoury filling in an open-topped pastry case.
Australian usage; British usage
noun
A dessert of congealed custard, often topped with caramel, especially popular in Spanish-speaking countries.
American usage
noun
A coin die.
verb
To splay or bevel internally, as a window-pane.
Example Sentences
- "The menu includes a number of excellent fish dishes such as the […] broccoli flan."
- "(some) Firefly flans call themselves Browncoats (Remember, the hot movie from Universal is out this September! :)"
- "For what it's worth, I'm 27 and am a huge Firefly/Serenity flan."
- "I'm glad this wasn't the first flan group I came across or I would never have realised the great nature of the majority of browncoasts.^([sic])"
Etymology
Borrowed around 1846 from French flan (“cheesecake, custard tart, flan”), or in some uses (in reference to Spanish/Latin American flans) later from Spanish flan (itself from the French), both from Old French flaon (whence also Middle English flaon, flaun (“pie; cake”)), from Late Latin fladō (“flat cake”), from Frankish *flaþō (“flat cake”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“broad, flat”); compare German Fladen. Akin to Old High German flado (“flat cake, offering cake”). Doublet of flathe. Although the -n is generally believed to derive from the Late Latin accusative form (fladonem) of fladō (“flat cake”), it might alternatively derive from an inflected form of the Frankish word (such as the Frankish accusative *flaþan, or the like). For a similar case, see garden.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: *pleth₂-, flan, flaon, fladō, *flaþō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /flɑn/
- British English: /flæn/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
leche flan