frangipani

English

Partly red frangipani flowers

One of many garden varieties of frangipani

Etymology

From an Italian noble family, a sixteenth-century marquess who invented a plumeria-scented perfume. The name comes from frangi "breaking" + pani "bread," a reference to the family's distribution of bread in time of famine.

Noun

frangipani (countable and uncountable, plural frangipanis)

1. Any of several tropical American trees, of the genus Plumeria, having fragrant, showy, funnel-shaped flowers of a wide range of colours from creamy to red.
2. A perfume originally obtained from these flowers

See also

• frangipane
• plumeria