Etymologically
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bake

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /beɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English baken, inherited from Old English bacan,[2][3][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *bakanan,[2][3] cognate with Old High German bahhan, Old Norse baka, Dutch bakken and German backen.[2][3][5][6] It goes back to an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *bhē- (“to warm”) (see bath), which also gave a Greek verb meaning to roast.[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cook by dry heat: before 893, in a translation of St Gregory's Dialogues.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Weak forms such as baked began before 1400 and were established by the 16th century.[4] Hardening bricks in a kiln is from 1388,[7] and the ground baked by the sun from 1697.[7] The noun, the process of baking, is from the 1560s,[3] and a gathering at which baked food is served is American, from 1846.[3] Baked beans is by 1803.[3] The baker's dozen of thirteen arose in the 16th century from the bakers' practice of adding a thirteenth loaf for the retailer's profit.[8] In Scots a bake is a biscuit.[7][9]

Timeline

  • before 893 – bacan.[2]
  • 1388 – to bake bricks.[7]
  • 1560s – a bake (noun).[3]
  • 16th century – baker's dozen.[8]
  • 1803 – baked beans.[3]
  • 1846 – a bake, a social gathering (US).[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To cook food by dry heat, especially in an oven.
  2. To harden or dry by heat.
  3. (informal) To be extremely hot, as in the sun.

Noun

  1. An act of baking, or a batch of things baked.
  2. (US) A social gathering at which baked food is served.
  3. (Scottish) A kind of biscuit.

Word family

  • baker
  • bakemeat
  • bake-off
  • half-baked
  • bakeapple
  • bakehouse
  • bakery
  • bakeshop

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)