オムレツ

1885-86 is an early printed point for オムレツ: Shogakukan's Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites Tsubouchi Shoyo's Tosei Shosei Katagi with ヲムレツ. The source forms listed in Japanese dictionaries are French omelette and English omelet/omelette. The French form remains useful because Meiji Japan treated many Western egg dishes as 洋食 rather than as ordinary English vocabulary. During the Meiji and Taisho periods, hotel menus, cookbooks, and Tokyo 洋食 restaurants grouped オムレツ with cutlet, croquette, curry, and other Western-style dishes. The word also gave Japanese a clipped element, オム, seen in オムライス, a rice dish wrapped in or covered with egg. Seisenban treats オムライス as オムレツ plus English rice. The meaning narrowed from omelette as a broad European egg dish to a standard Japanese restaurant and home dish. Modern dictionaries such as Digital Daijisen define オムレツ as beaten eggs seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in a frying pan, sometimes with minced meat, ham, or onion. In English, omelet can refer to many regional styles; in Japanese, オムレツ often suggests the 洋食 version. American spelling omelet is shorter, but katakana オムレツ keeps a final ツ. Example: プレーンオムレツ means a plain folded egg dish, not rice-filled オムライス.