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Bun

.

A small cake. (Irish, boinneog, Scotch, bannock.)

⁂ In regard to “hot cross buns” on Good Friday, it may be stated that the Greeks offered to Apollo, Diana, Hecate, and the Moon, cakes with “horns.” Such a cake was called a bous, and (it is said) never grew mouldy. The “cross” symbolised the four quarters of the moon.

“Good Friday comes this month: the old woman runs

With one a penny, two a penny ‘hot cross buns,ʹ

Whose virtue is, if you believe what’s said,

Theyʹll not grow mouldy like the common bread.”

Poor Robin: Almanack, 1733.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.