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Glite Dictionary
sea pancake

sea pancake

8.3
A savory pancake that has seafood like shrimp and crab
  • noun
translation icon : tortilla de mar
  • The chef's specialty was a savory sea pancake with shrimp and scallops.

Examples

  • She ordered a sea pancake filled with crab and spring onions for lunch.

  • Local restaurants often serve sea pancakes as a popular appetizer during seafood festivals.

  • I ordered a sea pancake for lunch.

  • The sea pancakes at the new restaurant were delicious.

  • Local restaurants often serve sea pancakes as a popular appetizer during seafood festivals.

  • She ordered a sea pancake filled with crab and spring onions for lunch.

  • The chef's specialty was a savory sea pancake with shrimp and scallops.

Surface Forms

sea pancake singular
sea pancakes plural

Morphology

sea + pancake

The meaning 'a pancake made with seafood or in a seafood style' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'sea' (relating to the ocean/seafood) modifying 'pancake' (a thin fried cake). Modifier+head compounds of this type are common in English and in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

The compound sea pancake may come from cooks by the sea who mixed bits of fish or shellfish into pancake batter and fried it flat like a pancake, so it looked like a small cake from the sea. So, sea pancake now means 'a savory pancake made with seafood'.