petit pâté

English

Etymology

From Middle French petit (“small”) + pâté (“pie, pasty”).

Noun

petit pâté (plural petit pâtés or petits pâtés)

1. A small pie or pasty. [from 15th c.]
   • 1794, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 283:

     There was a course of two soups, two dishes of fish, stewed beef, boiled lamb and spinach, roast mutton, fricandeau of veal, petit pâté—in short, substantial and choice.

   • 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette:

     With considerable willingness I ate and drank, keeping the petit pâté till the last, as a bonne bouche.