A spongy hot dish made light in baking by stiffly beaten egg whites.
Somewhat disturbingly, the word souffle, the name of a light, egg-based dish heated in an oven until it puffs up, derives from the same Latin source as the word flatulence, the name of a windy eructation that proceeds from the nether end of the alimentary canal. The source of both words is the Latin flare, meaning to puff (the Latin flare happens to be spelt like the English flare, meaning to burn with a sudden, blazing light, but the two words are not related). By taking the verb flare and combining it with the prefix sub, the ancient Romans created a new verb, subflare, meaning to puff from below, which soon had its pronunciation simplified to sufflare. In French, the Latin sufflare became souffler, a word whose past participle—souffle, meaning puffed up—was fittingly bestowed on the airy egg dish. English borrowed this French term in the early nineteenth century when recipes for souffles began to appear in British cookbooks. In contrast, flatulence is a much older word, first appearing in English at the beginning of the seventeenth century. English borrowed the word flatulence—or actually its adjective form flatulent—from the French, who had created the word from flatus, the past participle of the Latin flare. Flatus is also the source of a host of other English words, including flavour, in Vulgar Latin—that is, the Latin once spoken by the common people of Rome—flatus apparently gave rise ioflator, meaning smell; this word was adopted by Old French as flaour, which English changed to flavour when it adopted the term from French in the fourteenth century. For the next three hundred years, the English used flavour to refer only to smells, and not just food smells: flowers, incense, skunks, and smoke all had “flavours.” Beginning in the late seventeenth century, however, flavour came to mean taste, a change in meaning that may have been inspired by the simple fact that flavour rhymes with savour. One more word distantly related to souffle and flatulence is surf. This name for the tall, rushing waves of the sea first appeared in English in the late sixteenth century as suff, apparently a shortened form of the Latin sufflare or the French souffler; the inspiration behind the name was probably the highly visible foam, that “puffs up” on the waves as they surge toward the shore. The change in spelling from suff to surf began to occur in the late seventeenth century, the r perhaps being added as people unwittingly conflated the word suff with the word surge. Today, surf has become a culinary word, at least in surf and turf, a phrase that arose in the 1960s to describe a restaurant meal comprising both seafood and beef.
A soft breathing sound, heard through a stethoscope.
A soft blowing sound heard through the stethoscope, usually produced by blood flowing in vessels.
A soft blowing sound heard in auscultation; a bruit; an auscultatory murmur.
A dish that is baked and has a light and fluffy consistency, made by combining beaten egg whites with various other ingredients. It can be served hot as an entrée or main dish, or sweetened as a dessert.
A culinary delight characterized by its airy and delicate nature, a soufflé can be either sweet or savory, its ethereal texture achieved through the incorporation of stiffly beaten egg whites. The key to a successful soufflé lies in the meticulous process of beating the egg whites to perfection, ensuring they are both light and thoroughly integrated into the flour or other accompanying mixtures. Soufflés come in two variations: one served piping hot, while the other is enjoyed refreshingly chilled.
A gentle, whooshing sound detected using a stethoscope.