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Published 2015
The name fool may be derived from the French fouler, meaning “to press” or “to crush.” However, many early recipes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contained no fruit and were merely a kind of custard made of cream, eggs, and sugar, often flavored with spices, rosewater, or orange flower water. See flower waters. A likely explanation of the name is that fools, like trifles and whim-whams, are light and frivolous, mere trifles. In the early days, the words “fool” and “trifle” were frequently used interchangeably.