coc

Forms

cōc m (strong a-stem; genitive singular cōces, nominative plural cōcas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin *cōcus (“cook”), with the long vowel of an open syllable, from earlier Latin cocus, a form of coquus.^[2][1] Durkin counts it among the later Latin loans, probably made after about 650.^[3] Holthausen takes it straight from Vulgar Latin cocus.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from coquō (“to cook”).^[5][1]

Old Saxon kok and Old High German koh have a short vowel, and Durkin takes them to be a separate borrowing of the short-vowelled Latin form rather than one shared with English.^[2] In Old English the loan gave derivatives such as cōcormete, cōcorpanne and cōcnung.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in the Corpus Glossary, written in the first half of the ninth century, where cocas glosses Latin culinia.^[7][8] Toller's Supplement cites the same gloss from the Épinal–Erfurt tradition, where Erfurt reads coacas, and records the view that the lemma stands for sterculinia or cloacas; the parallel gloss Cóc culinia, cycene coquina supports the sense “cook”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Pastoral Care (890×897) has Koka ealdormon “the chief of the cooks” for Latin princeps cocorum.^[10][8][9] In Bald's Leechbook a dish is brewed swa cocas cunnon “as cooks know how”, and Ælfric's Colloquy asks Hwæt secgaþ we be coce? “what do we say about the cook?”.^[11][8][12]

The word lived on as Middle English cook, now English cook.^[13]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – cocas glossing culinia in the Corpus Glossary.^[7][8]
• 890×897 – Koka ealdormon “the chief of the cooks” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[10][8]
• s. x med. – swa cocas cunnon “as cooks know how” in Bald's Leechbook.^[11][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. a cook.^[12][14][15]

Word family

• cōcormete
• cōcorpanne
• cōcnung

Descendants

• Middle English cook (→ English cook; Scots cuke; Scots cuik)^[1]

Usage notes

Bosworth and Toller print cōc “cook” beside coc, cocc “cock”, a separate word.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 155
3. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 119
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 55
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 121
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 76
8. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 131
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
11. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 164
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. cōc
15. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 72