What links a type of pastry with lightning, flashes and sparkles? Let’s find out.
In English, and many other languages, an eclair / éclair is a small, chocolate-covered, creme-filled pastry puff in a general oblong shape [source].
The word comes from French éclair which can refer to the pastry, and also to lightning, a lightning bolt, a flash of lightning, a glint, flash, gleam or sparkle [source].
It is thought that the name of the pastry comes from the fact that it can be eaten quickly (in a flash), and/or because the glistening of the icing / frosting looks a bit like lightning. The éclair first appeared in Lyon in France in the 19th century, and was called pain à la Duchesse (“Duchess-style bread”) or petite duchesse (“little duchess”) until 1850. After that, the name éclair started to be used in French and in English [source].
The French word éclair comes from éclairer (to light up, brighten, shed light on enlighten, scout) from Old French esclairer (to light up), from Vulgar Latin *exclāriō, *exclāriāre, from Latin exclārāre, from ex- (out, away) and clārō (to brighten, lighten, illuminate, clarify) [source], from clārus (clear, bright, famous, upstanding, loud) from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (to call out to) [source].
Related words and expressions in French include:
- éclair de génie = stroke of genius
- fermeture éclair = zip (fastner), zipper
- rapide comme l’éclair = quick as a flash
- éclairé = well-lit, bright, illuminated, lit, knowledgable, well-informed, enlighted
- éclairement = illumination
- éclairant = illiminating, liminescent, clarifying, instructive
- éclairage = lighting, illumination, perspective
- éclairagiste = lighting specialist, lighting engineer, gaffer (chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production) [source].
Words from the PIE root *kelh₁- (to call out to) include acclaim, claim, clamour, clarify, clarinet, class, clear and council in English, klaar (ready, finished, done) in Dutch, exclamer (to exclaim, shout out) in French, coileach (cockerel, rooster) in Irish, hell (clear, bright, light, quick, clever) in German, and llamar (to summon, call, refer to, be called) in Spanish [source].