- cream
- early 14c., from O.Fr. cresme, blend of L.L. chrisma "ointment" (from Gk. chrisma "unguent"), and L.L. cramum "cream," perhaps from Gaulish. Replaced O.E. ream. Re-borrowed from Fr. 19c., as creme. Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" is from 1580s. Verb meaning "to beat, thrash, wreck" is 1929, U.S. colloquial. Related: Creamy (c.1600). Cream-cheese is from 1580s. Creampuff, in fig. sense of "weakling, sissy" is recorded from 1930s.
"I remember my first campaign. My opponent called me a cream puff. That's what he said. Well, I rushed out and got the baker's union to endorse me." [Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., 1987]
As a salesman's word, "something that is a tremendous bargain," it is from 1940s.