It’s a good question but I just read this on Wiktionary and Wikipedia and it’s obviously difficult to be certain.
Both Wiktionary entries in English or French are saying the etymology is from papillon. Then the Wikipedia article for the papillote candy says that the word papillote in cooking is from this, but there’s no citation. And the origin of the word for the candy is also discussed there as being unsure.
However, the French Wiktionary page on papillotte mentions that it’s the feminized form of papillot, which describes a small butterfly using the diminutive “ot”. This is grammatically cromulent. Like chien for dog, then chiot for puppy, or île and îlot.
The papillotes for cooking are not arranged in a butterfly form, but it’s easy to see how it could come from wrapping food like this . So by extension it can also be used to wrap anything using a type of paper, like hair.
As a native speaker, I tend to agree with the proposed etymology, as it kind of makes sense. There’s other words based on papillon so it makes it more likely. Like the verb papilloter to describe fluttering. Or bow ties, that are called nœuds papillon (butterfly knot), also because they look like butterflies.
Still, sometimes the simple deductions are also the ones that are wrong. It could also come from papier, because papillotes can be made of paper. However the spelling is not helping because if it came from papier, it would be spelled papiotte. It could just be a coincidence than ends up working both ways.
I’m curious if that origin for the word papillote is accurate, because it’s very close to “paper”.
The word describes not only the cooking method, but the “bags” themselves, which can be made out of paper.
The same word is also used for the hairstyle, as well as the pieces of paper used to create it.
It’s a good question but I just read this on Wiktionary and Wikipedia and it’s obviously difficult to be certain.
Both Wiktionary entries in English or French are saying the etymology is from papillon. Then the Wikipedia article for the papillote candy says that the word papillote in cooking is from this, but there’s no citation. And the origin of the word for the candy is also discussed there as being unsure.
However, the French Wiktionary page on papillotte mentions that it’s the feminized form of papillot, which describes a small butterfly using the diminutive “ot”. This is grammatically cromulent. Like chien for dog, then chiot for puppy, or île and îlot.
The papillotes for cooking are not arranged in a butterfly form, but it’s easy to see how it could come from wrapping food like this . So by extension it can also be used to wrap anything using a type of paper, like hair.
As a native speaker, I tend to agree with the proposed etymology, as it kind of makes sense. There’s other words based on papillon so it makes it more likely. Like the verb papilloter to describe fluttering. Or bow ties, that are called nœuds papillon (butterfly knot), also because they look like butterflies.
Still, sometimes the simple deductions are also the ones that are wrong. It could also come from papier, because papillotes can be made of paper. However the spelling is not helping because if it came from papier, it would be spelled papiotte. It could just be a coincidence than ends up working both ways.
Maybe the French word does have that origin, and other languages adapted it “differently”?
In Italian for example, this is called cooking “al cartoccio”, where paper is “carta” and butterfly is something else entirely.
I was trying to check Larousse but it keeps blocking me so meh. Perhaps both are true, as you said.