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

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"mirliton." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 August 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mirliton>.

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mirliton. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mirliton

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 )

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Cite this page

MLA Style

"mirliton." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 August 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mirliton>.

APA Style

mirliton. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/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.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"mirliton." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 August 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mirliton>.

APA Style

mirliton. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mirliton

mirliton

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