/fran'jeuh pan"ee, -pah"nee/ , n. , pl. frangipanis, frangipani .
1. a perfume prepared from or imitating the odor of the flower of a tropical American tree or shrub, Plumeria rubra, of the dogbane family.
2. the tree or shrub itself.
[ 1860-65; frangipane, after Marquis Muzio Frangipane or Frangipani a 16th-century Italian nobleman, the supposed inventor of the perfume ]