madeleine

Meanings

1. A French type of small gateau or sponge cake, often shaped like an elongated scallop shell.
2. Something which brings back a memory; a source of nostalgia or evocative memories.

1. A female given name from French, variant of Madeline.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French madeleine, from earlier gâteau à la Madeleine, after the given name Madeleine (“Magdalene”), of uncertain reference: attributed in some sources to a 19th-century pastry cook Madeleine Paulmier, whose existence is now considered dubious. In sense 2, used with reference to the cake's function in the extract below, taken from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.