The story
- Latin · derived fromsimila“fine flour”
- Old French · derived fromsimenel“fine wheat flour; flat bread cake, Lenten cake”
- Middle English · inherited fromsimenel
- English todaysimnel cake
From Middle English simenel (also simle), from Old French simenel (“fine wheat flour; flat bread cake, Lenten cake”), probably by dissimilation from Vulgar Latin *siminellus, a diminutive of Latin simila (“fine flour”) (see semolina). Compare also Middle Dutch semel, Middle Low German semele.
Words from the same roots
Latinsimila all →
semolinasemlasemola
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.