cook

Where does the word "cook" come from? It comes from Latin coquus, passing through Old English before entering English (1300s).

Cook’s story begins in Latin: coquus meant “cook.” Livy complains that after Rome's armies returned from Asia in 187 BC, the cook, once the cheapest slave, became the most costly. By medieval, the word had taken hold in Old English as cōc. In Ælfric's Colloquy (c. 1000), the cook argues that without him the others would have to eat their vegetables raw. It reached English by 1300s as cook. The verb came from the noun; Hannah Glasse's best-selling The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy appeared in 1747. Today, cook means to prepare food by heating; a person who prepares food.

1. Stage 1 · Latin · classical coquus "cook", Livy complains that after Rome's armies returned from Asia in 187 BC, the cook, once the cheapest slave, became the most costly.
2. Stage 2 · Old English · medieval cōc "cook", in Ælfric's Colloquy (c. 1000), the cook argues that without him the others would have to eat their vegetables raw.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1300s cook "one who prepares food", the verb came from the noun; Hannah Glasse's best-selling The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy appeared in 1747.