meringue

See also: meringué and méringue

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French meringue. Historically, it was believed that meringue was invented in and named for the Swiss village of Meiringen,^[1] but the term is now thought to derive instead from Middle Dutch meringue (“light evening meal”), of unclear origin:^[1]

perhaps from Latin merenda (“light evening meal”),^[1] or
perhaps from Middle Dutch *meren (“to dip or soak bread”), from Old Dutch *meren, itself of unclear origin:
- perhaps from Proto-Germanic *marjaną (“to grind, pound”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub, pack”).
- perhaps from Proto-Germanic *marhin (“soup of bread and wine or water”), from Proto-Indo-European *mark-, *merk- (“wet”).

Compare Middle Low German meringe (from mern (“to dip bread in wine”)), Middle High German merunge (from mëren (“to soak bread in wine or water for dinner”)), Old English merian (“to purify, cleanse, test”). Doublet of merengue.

Pronunciation

enPR: mə-răng', IPA^(key): /məˈɹæŋ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -æŋ

Noun

meringue (countable and uncountable, plural meringues)

A mixture consisting of beaten egg whites and sugar which is added to the tops of pies then browned.
The key to a good baked Alaska is the meringue topping.
A shell made of this mixture which serves as the receptacle for fruit, ice cream or sherbet.
Shirley likes to have strawberry with her meringue.
- 1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XIII, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 150:
  It had the same laxness in texture that all organic structures seem to have upon the moon; it tasted rather like a gauffre or a damp meringue, but in no way was it disagreeable.

Derived terms

Translations

mixture

Arabic: مرينج
Armenian: բեզե (hy) (beze)
Basque: merenge
Bengali: মেরিঙ্গু (meriṅgu)
Breton: mereng
Bulgarian: разбити белтъци m pl (razbiti beltǎci)
Catalan: merenga (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 蛋白甜餅／蛋白甜饼 (dànbái tiánbǐng), 蛋白霜餅／蛋白霜饼 (dànbái shuāngbǐng)
Czech: bezé, sníh (cs) m
Danish: marengs c
Dutch: meringue (nl)
Esperanto: meringo
Estonian: besee
Finnish: marenki (fi)
French: meringue (fr)
Galician: merengue (gl) m
Georgian: ბეზე (beze)
German: Baiser (de) n, (rare) Meringue f
Greek: mαρέγκα (marégka), μπεζές (el) (bezés)
Hebrew: מקצפת (he)
Hungarian: cukros tojáshab
Icelandic: marens
Ido: meringo (io)
Indonesian: kue busa
Irish: meireang m
Italian: meringa (it)
Japanese: メレンゲ (ja) (merenge)
Javanese: meringue
Kazakh: безе (beze)
Korean: 머랭 (meoraeng)
Latvian: bezē
Malayalam: മെറിംഗു (meṟiṅgu)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: marengs

Nynorsk: marengs
Persian: مرنگ
Polish: beza (pl)
Portuguese: suspiro (pt), merengue (pt) m
Romanian: bezea (ro)
Russian: безе́ (ru) n (bezé), мере́нга (ru) f (merénga)
Serbo-Croatian: пуслице
Spanish: merengue (es) m
Swedish: maräng (sv) c
Tagalog: merengge
Thai: เมอแร็งก์ (məə-rɛng)
Ukrainian: безе (uk) (beze)
Vietnamese: bánh trứng đường
Welsh: meráng

shell

Bulgarian: целувка (bg) f (celuvka)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 蛋白甜餅／蛋白甜饼 (dànbái tiánbǐng), 蛋白霜餅／蛋白霜饼 (dànbái shuāngbǐng)
Danish: marengs c
Dutch: meringue (nl) c
Finnish: marenkikuppi, marenkipohja
French: meringue (fr)
German: Baiser (de) n
Hungarian: habcsók (hu)
Icelandic: marens m
Irish: meireang m
Japanese: メレンゲ (ja) (merenge)
Polish: beza (pl) f
Russian: мере́нга (ru) f (merénga)
Swedish: maräng (sv) c
Thai: เมอแร็งก์ (məə-rɛng)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: ^{(please verify)} meringue (fr) f
Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} habcsók (hu)
Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} marengs
Spanish: ^{(please verify)} merengue (es)
Swedish: ^{(please verify)} maräng (sv) c

Verb

meringue (third-person singular simple present meringues, present participle meringuing, simple past and past participle meringued)