Etymology

castella

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Today it means: A Japanese sponge cake made of sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup. Full definition →

Japanese カステラ ← Portuguese pão de Castela
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The story

  1. Portuguese · derived frompão de Castela
  2. Japanese · derived fromカステラ
  3. English todaycastella

From Japanese カステラ (kasutera), from Portuguese pão de Castela (literally “bread of Castile”), an old type of sponge cake which they brought to Japan. Compare Italian pandispagna, Tagalog Pan de Kastila (“Spanish bread”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.