Etymology

carrot cake

Today it means: A sweet cake, often iced, containing grated carrot. Full definition →

Hokkien 菜頭粿 /菜头粿
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The story

  1. Hokkien · calque of菜頭粿 /菜头粿
  2. English todaycarrot cake

The Singaporean senses are calque of Hokkien 菜頭粿 /菜头粿 (chhài-thâu-kóe / chhài-thâu-ké / chhài-thâu-kér, literally “radish cake”), which may have arisen from a confusion between Hokkien 菜頭 /菜头 (chhài-thâu, “radish”) and 紅菜頭 /红菜头 (âng-chhài-thâu, “carrot”, literally “red radish”).

Words from the same roots

Hokkien菜頭粿 all →

chai tow kway

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.