blancmange

noun

Etymology: From Middle English blancmanger, blomanger, from Old French blanc mangier (“white food”). The pudding evolved from the chicken dish. Compare French blanc-manger.

1. A simple dessert made by cooking sweetened milk with cornstarch and vanilla.

   ““That looks too pretty to eat,” he said, smiling with pleasure, as Jo uncovered the dish, and showed the blanc-mange”

2. Something soft, weak, and wobbly.

   “I was a snarler. I prided myself on being a snarler. I would go to great lengths to avoid stereotypical feminine behaviour. I thought that in being outrageous or out of control, which I viewed as synonymous, I was thumbing my nose at the patriarchy. My biggest fear about AA was that I would lose my edge. Turn into blancmange.”

   “Yet the shootout was only part of the story against tough, obdurate opponents – “animals” according to Chris Waddle in his radio commentary – on a night when Colombia’s supporters had filled this stadium in swathes of bright yellow, bouncing and swaying like human blancmange and creating a raucous din.”

3. A dish, eaten in the Middle Ages, generally consisting of chicken (or sometimes capon or fish), milk or almond milk, rice, and sugar.

   “Chaucer's Cook made blancmange with the best of them, according to the Prologue to the Tales. There were two versions of this popular dish in Chaucer's day, one made with fish and the other with capon or chicken.”