A sweet paste made from ground almonds, sugar, and egg white, often shaped into candies or decorative figures.
From Italian 'marzapane', from Arabic 'al-marzaban' (container for perfume). The word originally referred to a container, then transferred to the almond confection sold in such containers.
Marzipan's name literally meant 'perfume container' in Arabic—medieval merchants sold the precious almond paste in fancy boxes, and the European traders eventually called the candy itself by the Arabic word for its container!
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