Wednesday 25 August 2010

Frangible


Frangible is a lovely word meaning breakable. It is best applied to hearts.

What makes frangible so much superior to breakable is that when you say the word aloud it sounds delicate. Frangible falls apart on the tongue, like frangipani chocolate.

2 comments:

  1. Dogberry, what is frangipani chocolate? I am wearing frangipani perfume, but that is a different thing entirely. Are you sure you aren't thinking of marzipan? That said, frangible is a very lovely word, particularly when applied to hearts.

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  2. Aha! The missing link! I've had frangipane tart before -- which didn't contain any frangipani. After reading your post it occurred to me it might mean broken bread. And hours of etymological research show this to be true (well, a few seconds of looking it up on Wikipedia).

    The Frangipani family of medieval Rome were so named because they gave bread to the poor. The flower / shrub was named after a sixteenth century member of the family who made perfume.

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