Gingerbread
/ˈdʒɪn.dʒərˌbrɛd/noun
A sweet baked food flavored with ginger, often made as a cake, cookie, or loaf.
Did you know?The ginger in gingerbread ultimately comes from a Sanskrit root for a plant prized across Asia for its pungent, warming bite, while the bread part is just the old everyday word for baked dough.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*gengʰ-
“to bend, turn, or twist”
Sanskrit
Sanskrit
śṛṅgavera
“a kind of spice or ginger”
Greek
Greek
zingíberis
“ginger”
Latin
Latin
zingiber
“ginger”
Old English
English
brēad
“bread, food, loaf”
13th Century
English
gingebreed
“a preparation of preserved ginger; later, spiced baked bread”
Modern English
English
gingerbread
“a sweet baked food flavored with ginger”