casserole

Etymology

It is borrowed from French casserole (“saucepan, stew-pan”),^[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from the 16th century,^[3] a diminutive of casse (“ladle, pan”);^[5][6][7][4] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford take it as an extension of cassole, itself a diminutive of casse.^[8][9] The French casse is from Old Occitan cassa (“ladle, melting pan”),^[5][4][3][6] from Medieval Latin cattia (“dipper, pan, vessel”),^[5][4][3][6] which is traced to Ancient Greek κυάθιον (kuáthion, “small ladle, little cup”), a diminutive of κύαθος (kúathos, “cup, ladle”).^[5][7][9][8] Barnhart and Etymonline call the Greek source possible,^[4][3] and Merriam-Webster takes the Medieval Latin word as a modification of the Greek one.^[6] The OED compares Italian casserola and Spanish cacerola, and finds the actual history of the word obscure.^[2] Weekley compared cazo and an Arabic word for a dish.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The edging or outer portion of certain dressed dishes: 1706, in the new edition of Phillips's New World of Words.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "stew-pan" to the same year,^[3] and Merriam-Webster dates the cooking vessel to 1708.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In English the word first named the pan, a kind of stew-pan;^[3][2] by 1889 it was also used of the dishes cooked in it, through cookery phrases such as en casserole and à la casserole.^[3][2] The modern sense is a covered heatproof dish in which food is both cooked and served, and the food cooked in it.^[9][11][12] The early sense of an edging around certain dishes is now rare.^[9] In the laboratory a casserole is a small deep porcelain dish with a handle, used for heating substances.^[11][6] The verb, to cook in a casserole, appears in 1930 in Dorothy L. Sayers's Strong Poison.^[2]

Timeline

• 1706 – the edging of certain dressed dishes (now rare).^[2][9]
• 1725 – a kind of stew-pan.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1706.^[3]
• 1889 – a dish of food cooked in such a pan.^[3]
• 1930 – verb, to cook in a casserole; also a figurative use of the noun.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A covered dish of earthenware, glass or metal in which food is baked and served: She lifted the lid of the casserole to check the beans.^[11][12][6]
2. The food cooked and served in such a dish, usually a slowly cooked stew: a lentil casserole.^[11][12][7]
3. A small deep porcelain dish with a handle, used in laboratories for heating and evaporating substances.^[11][6]

Verb

1. To cook food in a casserole.^[12][6][2]

Related words

• cassolette

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins