petit four
1
7.8
- noun
- /pəˈtiː fɔːr/
:
petit four
- I want those petit fours now!
- petits fours plate
- petits fours: almond cake
- dessert and petits fours
Examples
-
We ordered cake and were brought a plate crowded with exquisite petits fours.
-
The next day, I was at the post office with a box to mail in one hand and a basket of iced petits fours slung over my arm to be delivered to the hospital.
Fiction book (2002) -
Who would like a petit four?
Fiction book (2002) -
Especially the tiny petit fours.
Blog text (2) -
Hope made sure they each had a petit four before the arrival of Donaldina's donors.
Fiction book (1997) -
Throughout the entire event, Juliana stuffed her face with canapés and petits fours.
Fiction book (2001) -
On the table, with the tea set, is a dish of petits fours.
-
For dessert, there are pastries, cakes, petits fours, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Synonyms
1
5.5
A small soft cake shaped like a shell often served with tea
How Fancy
Surface Forms
Morphology
petit + four
This is a borrowed French phrase whose literal parts are not interpretable by a typical B1 English learner: 'petit' is a French modifier and 'four' is not an English lexical item here. Even knowing the French senses ('small' + 'oven') would not transparently yield 'small fancy cake', so the meaning is idiomatic and unpredictable from the constituents.
Etymology
Petit four comes from the French words petit ('small') and four ('oven'). Bakers baked tiny sweets in the oven as it cooled, so the name came to mean the little fancy cakes we serve with tea.