quiche

Quiche comes from French quiche, borrowed from the Lorraine Rhine Franconian word Küeche, meaning 'cake.' That word traces back through Middle High German kuoche and Old High German kuocho to Proto-Germanic *kōkô and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *gog-, meaning 'ball-shaped object.'

The word stayed close to its 'baked good' roots for centuries, moving from Germanic dialect into French and then English as the name for the savory tart we know today. In 2013, the Australian sitcom Ja'mie: Private School Girl gave the word a completely separate slang sense, defining 'quiche' as attractiveness that's 'a step above hot.'

Quiche is a distant cousin of English cake, which also descends from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, and of cookie, which shares the same Proto-Germanic root *kōkô.