{"id":24747,"date":"2026-09-12T12:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24747"},"modified":"2026-09-12T12:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:31:16","slug":"lightning-pastries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24747","title":{"rendered":"Lightning Pastries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What links a type of <strong>pastry<\/strong> with <strong>lightning<\/strong>, <strong>flashes<\/strong> and <strong>sparkles<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/roboppy\/237530340\/in\/photolist-mZpuG-675Xyg-2rcVz-5jgm1n-6FyPPh-nUHNz5-5hHLWu-6qU6cN-uy1riw-bskN8u-71Li8V-7kAhqa-2JSfYz-nUNJQx-9uvqTv-3KqiHU-7hWYU-8JHDxt-HwdAc9-dym6iE-2mv7R9-6dymL7-7kE9to-mzPdub-oqGzvt-5FcKty-5F8rM8-avDZUk-5hDpUa-CBA58n-Cdzsmf-5F8v7z-zDAyx-5hHKTC-3cyWNP-8JQWHe-WKoFRG-5F8uer-fw6yTE-vprxu-3oeNCY-2hF56Js-b1WHm-WpMdSd-nPmZXb-5F8wLz-cHcqi5-2dAnSyV-3i7ni-qfcKjH\" title=\"eclairs\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/87\/237530340_e716a85708_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" alt=\"eclairs\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In English, and many other languages, an <strong>eclair \/ \u00e9clair<\/strong> is a small, chocolate-covered, creme-filled pastry puff in a general oblong shape [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%C3%A9clair#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/computerhotline\/3566015456\/in\/photolist-V5iprH-nW47Du-Pao8V-64FeK8-7RpVLe-fhawbD-5u9RtV-6JtXPn-JrM4u-6r7La7-fhpGp3-oJE44-7Py7Ac-4qkwWt-5ZYJb7-6UhDiC-Uec4ZF-iL1iS-p96mhE-6nhA2P-Pao84-WzLYST-5u9xV6-4Ya73-f78tfg-9KzAJk-9AFkQm-KD43DM-2hLosTf-nRocQ-2arguw4-udvBHj-LZFZ9Q-5BMmSc-N3ygim-c2QpRu-5BMmSe-5BMmS8-c2Qq3s-c2QpZ9-3QL8nE-2hWXnE-22jVwbq-2jCuxyH-X6hgtz-Jo5TSZ-oR6sqo-75SJmR-RrDBt-XhVsTc\" title=\"Eclairs\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2465\/3566015456_bfbc9804e8_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"385\" alt=\"Eclairs\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The word comes from French <strong>\u00e9clair<\/strong> which can refer to the pastry, and also to lightning, a lightning bolt, a flash of lightning, a glint, flash, gleam or sparkle [<a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\/french-english\/%C3%A9clair\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>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 \u00e9clair first appeared in Lyon in France in the 19th century, and was called <em>pain \u00e0 la Duchesse<\/em> (&#8220;Duchess-style bread&#8221;) or <em>petite duchesse<\/em> (&#8220;little duchess&#8221;) until 1850. After that, the name <em>\u00e9clair<\/em> started to be used in French and in English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%C3%89clair\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>The French word <strong>\u00e9clair<\/strong> comes from <strong>\u00e9clairer<\/strong> (to light up, brighten, shed light on enlighten, scout) from Old French <em>esclairer<\/em> (to light up), from Vulgar Latin <em>*excl\u0101ri\u014d, *excl\u0101ri\u0101re<\/em>, from Latin <em>excl\u0101r\u0101re<\/em>, from <em>ex-<\/em> (out, away) and <em>cl\u0101r\u014d<\/em> (to brighten, lighten, illuminate, clarify) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%C3%A9clair#French\">source<\/a>], from <em>cl\u0101rus<\/em> (clear, bright, famous, upstanding, loud) from Proto-Indo-European <em>*kelh\u2081-<\/em> (to call out to) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/clarus#Latin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Related words and expressions in French include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00e9clair de g\u00e9nie<\/strong> = stroke of genius<\/li>\n<li><strong>fermeture \u00e9clair<\/strong> = zip (fastner), zipper<\/li>\n<li><strong>rapide comme l&#8217;\u00e9clair<\/strong> = quick as a flash<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00e9clair\u00e9<\/strong> = well-lit, bright, illuminated, lit, knowledgable, well-informed, enlighted<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00e9clairement<\/strong> = illumination<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00e9clairant<\/strong> = illiminating, liminescent, clarifying, instructive<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00e9clairage<\/strong> = lighting, illumination, perspective<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00e9clairagiste<\/strong> = lighting specialist, lighting engineer, gaffer (chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%C3%A9clairer#French\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Words from the PIE root <em>*kelh\u2081-<\/em> (to call out to) include <strong>acclaim<\/strong>, <strong>claim<\/strong>, <strong>clamour<\/strong>, <strong>clarify<\/strong>, <strong>clarinet<\/strong>, <strong>class<\/strong>, <strong>clear<\/strong> and <strong>council<\/strong> in English, <strong>klaar<\/strong> (ready, finished, done) in Dutch, <strong>exclamer<\/strong> (to exclaim, shout out) in French, <strong>coileach<\/strong> (cockerel, rooster) in Irish, <strong>hell<\/strong> (clear, bright, light, quick, clever) in German, and <strong>llamar<\/strong> (to summon, call, refer to, be called) in Spanish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%C3%A9clairer#French\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What links a type of pastry with lightning, flashes and sparkles? Let&#8217;s find out. In English, and many other languages, an eclair \/ \u00e9clair is a small, chocolate-covered, creme-filled pastry puff in a general oblong shape [source]. The word comes from French \u00e9clair which can refer to the pastry, and also to lightning, a lightning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,10,15,34,45,216,78],"tags":[696,697,164,158,338,138,698,281,699,163],"class_list":["post-24747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language","category-latin","category-old-french","category-proto-indo-european","category-vulgar-latin-sermo-vulgaris","category-words-and-phrases","tag-eclair","tag-eclair-2","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-french","tag-language","tag-lightning","tag-omniglot","tag-pastry","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24747"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24752,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747\/revisions\/24752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}