mirliton

mir·li·ton

chayote: term used in Cajun cooking

Origin of mirliton

origin, originally , a small toy flute or kazoo from Fr: echoic; connection with the fruit unknown

mirliton

noun

Chiefly Southern Louisiana

See chayote.

Origin of mirliton

Louisiana French (perhaps from the kazoolike shape of chayote fruit) from French mirliton coin, reed pipe with a vibrating membrane, kazoo perhaps from a song refrain ( such as mireli, mirela refrain of the popular 16th-century song “Dessus le marché d'Arras” describing a man offering money to a young woman for her favors )

mirliton

Noun

(plural mirlitons)

A pear-shaped vegetable or its vine; the chayote.
(music) The eunuch flute, a kind of membranophone.
An 18th-century hussar hat resembling a slightly conical shako or tall fez.
A tartlet or biscuit garnished with almond, first produced in Rouen around 1800.

Origin

From French. Coined as a nonce to advertise a new women's bonnet, mirliton came to be applied to any trifle or trinket before acquiring several specific meanings. Compare the English word folderol.

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