Etymology

king cake

Today it means: A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object which entitles its finder to be the "king" for one day. Full definition →

French galette des rois
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The story

  1. French · calque ofgalette des rois
  2. English todayking cake

Probably a calque of French galette des rois (literally “galette of the kings”), meaning the three Magi who visited the baby Jesus at Epiphany.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.