Strange as it might seem, the word omelette is related to both the word laminate and the word enamel, but is not related to the similar sounding amulet, a charm that wards off evil spirits. Omelette ultimately goes back to the Latin word lamina, meaning a plate of metal. Lamina gave rise to a diminutive Latin form, lamella, meaning a small or thin plate of metal, which in turn was taken into Old French as lemelle, meaning blade of a knife. The word lemelle was then bestowed upon the breakfast entree because omelettes are flat and thin like a knife blade. Subsequently the name lemelle underwent a number of linguistic changes, beginning with the addition of an a to the beginning of the word as French speakers mistook la lemelle as I’alemelle. Next, the / sound at the end of alemele was change to a t sound—as in alemette—because ette is the more usual diminutive suffix in French. Finally, the remaining / and the m traded places due to a common linguistic process called metathesis, giving rise to amelette, which was then changed to omelette to make it look more like the Latin word for egg, ovum, to which it has absolutely no linguistic connection. It was this form of the word, omelette, which entered English in 1611. Perhaps because of the complex history of the word omelette, many easier, but false, explanations of its origin have been proposed. In spite of the enticing simplicity of these suggestions, however, the word does not derive from the ancient Roman dish called ova mellita, Latin for eggs with honey, nor does it derive from oeufs meles, French for mixed eggs.