mirliton

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mirliton

/ˈmɜːlɪˌtɒn/ British, Multicultural London English, UK
/ˈmɪɹləˌtɑn/ US

Where it comes from

From French. Coined as a nonce to advertise a new women's bonnet, mirliton came to be applied to any trifle or trinket before acquiring several specific meanings. Compare the English word folderol.

noun mirlitons

A pear-shaped vegetable or its vine; the chayote. To start your mirliton plant, buy the fruit in a produce-oriented market in spring and plant it in full sunlight in fertile, well-drained soil, leaving the stem half of the fruit out of the ground.
The eunuch flute, a kind of kazoo or membranophone. In form the mirlitons resembled flutes, shawms, or other instruments, and were generally furnished with a parchment membrane.
An 18th-century hussar hat resembling a slightly conical shako or tall fez. Headwear: This was either the colpack or the mirliton. Regiments No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9 wore the former; 5, 6, 7 and 8 the latter.
A tartlet or biscuit garnished with almond, first produced in Rouen around 1800. […] Have moulds prepared as for the mirlitons of Rouen; fill them and finish in the same manner.

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MLA

"mirliton." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mirliton. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mirliton. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mirliton

Chicago

"mirliton." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mirliton.

BibTeX

@misc{mirliton_2026,
  title = {mirliton},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mirliton},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}