Crumpet
/ˈkrʌmpɪt/noun
A small, thick, soft griddle cake with many holes on top, usually toasted and eaten with butter.
Did you know?The word likely began as a description of the cake’s rough, puckered surface, not a mystical meaning—but its cousin roots in Germanic languages are the same family behind words for bending, crumpling, and compression.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*krump- / *krumpaz
“Bent, crooked, or compressed”
Old English
OE
crump
“Bent, crooked, wrinkled”
Middle English
ME
crumpet / crompid cake
“A curled or puckered cake; a rough, crinkled bread-cake”
17th Century
English
crumpet
“A small griddle cake, often with a spongy, holey surface”
Modern English
English
crumpet
“A soft, yeast-raised griddle cake eaten toasted with butter”