Let them Eat Brioche by Gary Hainsworth

June 2016, revised August 2022

My question is this: When Louis XVI's Austrian wife Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) said 'let them eat cake,' did she say that in French or German? Assuming she said it at all, which doesn't appear to be the case, though, if it were some sources purport that she did so at the age of five. Five. As in five years old. As in somewhere between the age of a preschooler and someone school aged. Ostensibly a kindergartner, to borrow a term largerly absent the 18th century she loved but common place the 19th one she never lived to see, and condemned for saying  "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" or "Lass sie Kuchen essen." 

Kuchen retneders to cake in the German tongue from a French one and means about the same thing. However, the original word itself, la brioche, does not. Brioche itself isn't necessarily equivalent to the word 'cake.' Le gâteau, La tarte, la pâtisserie, or possibly la croquette, would suffice for better analogs to the English word for cake with Le gâteau the most analagous, but broiche beggars clarification as to what context allows such a translation from the French to English to be possible let alone so persistent to historical posterity. 

Perhaps an answer can be provided. Brioche, the word and the type bread of its label refers, has no direct equivalent in the English tongue or in the English kitchen as it does the French of either. Saying 'light, eggy, creamy, buttery, and slightly puffy sweet bread' doesn't sound as reasonable as cake, which might technically be inaccurate or misleading, but seems to be so within the proverbial ballpark that attempting to create an English version of the word 'brioche' instead of adopting of the French and making it an English cognate seems to be more trouble then its worth. 

'Let them eat broiche' doesn't sound good, but neither does it sound absurd either, which is the point of this possibly fraudulent motto about something Antoinette allegedly said. However, such a translation likely wouldn't provoke as much revolutionary zeal. Cake is pretty straightforward. Le broiche not so much. Calling the maxim, 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche,' 'Qu'ils mangent de le gateau' might theoretically make a better translation, but could also make someone accidentally think they are talking about killing a feline named Marge or believe that Antoinette is saying the equivallent of the English word 'let them eat cookies,' which, if said by a five year old version of Antoinette, is much more reasonable then if she states the same thing at thirty-five. 

Let them eat cookies is exactly the kind of thing one would expect a five year old to say when first being introduced to the idea of famine, poverty, and the like. 'Well, why don't they just eat cookies instead?' Naïve, most definitely but perhaps not so worthy of derision and rebuke, then if it had been said by a girl significantly older. A reductive solution, but not outside the pedagogic perimeters to be expected of a young child that age, especially one that grew up in the lap luxury. Now if it is true that she 'let them eat cake' or the equivalent phrase in French and German mentioned above, then the comment itself reads less like an example of out of touch elitism and more like saccharine naivety from a literal child not quite able to grasp with the complexities of the world. 

The aforementioned phrase itself certainly doesn't roll of the tongue or pen with nearly as much ease. 'Let them eat light, eggy, creamy, butter, and slightly puffy sweet bread,' from "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" doesn't have the right ring, which is possibly where the German Kuchen comes in and the English takes cues from the German translation. 

If Antoinette did say this oft-attributed quote then she did so somewhere between the ages of 5 and 34 since it's unlikely she said it after the French Revolution, during the Reign of Terror, or anytime after she was decapitated by the guillotine.

Imagine being s*** on for some out of touch, seemingly emotional tone-deaf comment you made when you were five years old. Assuming you said it at all, which remains debated.