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Arabic mawtabān meant literally "enthroned king." It was used by the Saracens as the name of a medieval Venetian coin that had a figure of the seated Jesus Christ on it. In the Italian dialect of Venice the word became matapan, and eventually, in general Italian, marzapane; and its meaning supposedly progressed from the "coin" via "measure of weight or capacity," "box of such capacity," and "such a box containing confectionery" to "the contents of such a box." After English originally acquired the word (possibly via French) it became Anglicized to marchpane, and that remained the standard form until the 19th century. Around this time marzipan was borrowed from German. This was an alteration of Italian marzapane, based on the misconception that it came from Latin marci panis "St. Mark's bread."
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