When you hear 'custard' are you hearing English or French?

'Custard' is a word borrowed from French 'crouste'. The word entered the English language some time around 1706.

custard [noun] [circa 1706]

A pudding-like usually sweetened mixture made with eggs and milk
Meaning: a pudding-like usually sweetened mixture made with eggs and milk.

Etymology: Middle English; a kind of pie; alteration of crustarde; crustade; probably from Anglo-French *crustade; from cruste crust; from Latin crusta crust.

Topics: Plants:Fruits, Food:Dishes, Food:Meat.

Origin: From Latin to French to English.

note: From Middle English crustade referring to a meat/fruit pie in a crust derived from Anglo-French croustade meaning something covered with crust ultimately from Latin crusta (crust) and its root kreus- (to freeze/form a crust). Originally described a baked dish in pastry evolving from French/Italian tart terms (croustade/crostata) linked to the Latin for crust before narrowing in meaning to the egg-thickened milk dish we know today.

See 'custard' on the Loan Words Map

See more loan words from French.

See more loan words from 1700s.