frangipani

• frangipane

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˌfrændʒɪˈpɑːni/, /ˌfrændʒɪˈpæni/
• Rhymes: -ɑːni, -æni

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

2. A flower of these plants.
   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 98:

     The aroma given off by flowers has an aphrodisiac effect, especially on women. This is so particularly in the case of lilies of the valley, gardenia, frangipani, and henna.

   • 2022 November 26, Virginia Feito, “Sweating Through a Honeymoon in Paradise”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     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.

3. A perfume obtained from this plant or imitating the odour of its flowers.
4. 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^[2]:

     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.

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