A macaroon is NOT a macaron

So France has a new president. The media are having a field day calling Emmanuel Macron the country's "youngest leader since Napoleon", which does not seem to be a fair comparison.

Macron is at least 5cm taller than Bonaparte was and so far has voiced no desire to conquer other nations while wearing a silly hat and riding a white horse.

There is, however, one point of astonishing similarity.

Napoleon was very fond of almonds. In his memoir, Napoleon from the Tuileries to St. Helena: personal recollections of the emperor's second mameluke and valet, Louis Étienne Saint-Denis wrote: "What he especially liked were fresh almonds. He was so fond of them that he would eat almost the whole plate."

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Macron has not expressed any particular fondness for nuts - the most we know about his eating preferences is that he used to drink hot chocolate with his grandmother, Manette, who his biographer François-Xavier Bourmaud says influenced his humanist politics - but his name is just one letter away from macaron, the French delicacy made with almond flour.

It is hoped that this youthful leader will bring good things to Europe and the world. Let us also pray that his name heralds a new era of understanding in which the macaron and the macaroon resolve their differences.

The macaron is small, precisely round and crisply delicate with a smooth shiny shell and soft centre. Macarons come in all colours and flavours, from lavender to pistachio to lemon. The most revered macarons come from Ladurée in Paris, which has a branch in New York that sells bright-orange pumpkin macarons at Halloween - as Billy Wilder frequently said, nobody's perfect.

The macaroon, in the UK and the US, is a sickly sweet and squishy coconut confection which may have started out as a cousin of the macaron (Mrs Beeton's 1861 recipe uses almond paste) but has evolved into another beast entirely.

The reason for the confusion is understandable, because the words are closely related. The Wikipedia entry on this matter states: "The word macaroon is simply an Anglicisation of the French word macaron (compare balloon, from French ballon)."

Even the bible of French cuisine, Larousse Gastronomique, gives the English translation of macaron as "macaroon". Or at least that's how it is in my 1961 version. Let's hope it has been corrected in more recent editions, because a macaroon is not a macaron.

No one would be all that bothered about the difference between macarons and macaroons if it weren't for the sudden rise in popularity of the French cookie (which was actually invented by the Italians but, as Billy Wilder might once have said, let's not go there).

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A simple etymological misunderstanding would not matter so much if the macaron had not started a revolution that sought to banish coconut pretenders from bakery shelves.

The triumph of the macaron has caused all sorts of trouble, not least for stage designers called on to decorate the set for Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House.

Coconut macaroons have traditionally been used as the pivotal prop, but, as the writers of Nico and Amy's Literary Kitchen blog point out, coconuts were not common in Norway in the 19th century, although almond flour was everywhere, so when Ibsen wrote makroner, he was more likely to have been talking about macarons than macaroons. What a dilemma. And all because a French dainty became the sweet du jour.

What caused macarons to break out of their elegant Parisian windows and mount a global offensive of Napoleonic proportions? Some say it is simply because they are French. In a Spectator article called "The rise of macaron mania," Constance Watson wrote: "The macaron was once just a small cake whose chief purpose was to quell the pangs of sugar cravings.

But in recent years it has climbed the hierarchical rungs of French cuisine, and is now seen as a symbol of La République's culture and elegance. People eat them in the hope that they will appear more chic."

Macron's inauguration takes place today. If we don't read about blue, white and red macarons being served, I swear I'll eat one of those horrible coconut cakes.

• E-mail your observations on words and language to Sue de Groot on degroots@sundaytimes.co.za or follow her on Twitter: @deGrootS1