crumpet

Meaning

Noun

• A type of savoury cake, typically flat and round, made from batter and yeast, containing many small holes and served toasted, usually with butter.
• A person (or, collectively, persons), usually female, considered sexually desirable.

Origin

• 17th century, either from crompid cake, from crompid, form of crumpen; cognate to crumpled. Alternate etymology is from Celtic; compare Breton krampouezh ("crepe, pancake") and Welsh crempog ("pancake").
• Sense of “desirable woman” attested 1936, possibly as cockney rhyming slang for strumpet; alternatively, compare tart (itself possibly cockney rhyming slang for heart or sweetheart). Note that muffin has a similar sense, and that, in 19th and early 20th centuries, "Muffins and crumpets" was a familiar street-cry in UK.