cooker

Etymology

It is formed from English cook + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb cook comes from the noun, which is from Old English coc,^[3] from Vulgar Latin *cocus and Latin coquus, from coquō (“to cook, ripen”), from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, ripen”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who cooks a particular food or meal, a cook: 1780, in Thomas Francklin's translation of Lucian.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The OED records a vessel for cooking food from 1849 and the kitchen appliance with burners and ovens from 1860;^[2] Etymonline dates the stove to 1868,^[3] Dictionary.com the word to 1880–85,^[5] and Merriam-Webster its sense of a cooking device to 1884.^[6] A fruit or vegetable better cooked than eaten raw, especially an apple, has been a cooker since 1860.^[2][4] In 19th-century slang a cooker was something that finished a person off (1845–69),^[2][7] and it was also a person who falsifies accounts, from 1849, after cook the books.^[2][4] In drug slang it was a person who prepared opium for smoking (1889) and later a container, such as a spoon or bottle cap, for heating a drug before injection (1905).^[2][7] The pressure cooker is recorded from 1914.^[2]

Timeline

• 1780 – a person who cooks a particular food.^[2]
• 1845 – slang, something that finishes a person off (obsolete after 1869).^[2]
• 1849 – a vessel for cooking food; a person who falsifies accounts.^[2]
• 1860 – a kitchen appliance with burners and an oven; a fruit or vegetable suited to cooking.^[2] Etymonline dates the stove to 1868, and Merriam-Webster a cooking device to 1884.^[3][6]
• 1889 – a person who prepares opium or another drug for use.^[2]
• 1905 – a container for heating a drug.^[2][7]
• 1914 – pressure cooker.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British) A kitchen appliance for cooking food, with an oven, a hob and a grill, powered by gas or electricity; a stove.^{[8][9][10][2]}
2. A vessel, utensil or device for cooking food, as in slow cooker and rice cooker.^{[6][11][5][4]}
3. (informal, chiefly British) A fruit, especially an apple, better cooked than eaten raw.^{[8][9][10][6][2]}
4. A worker who runs cooking equipment in a commercial process, such as brewing or distilling.^[11][5][6]
5. (slang) A container, such as a bottle cap or spoon, in which a drug is heated before injection.^[2][7]

Word family

• pressure cooker
• slow cooker

Related words

• cook
• kitchen

Usage notes

British dictionaries give the kitchen appliance as the main sense and label it British,^[8][9][2] while American dictionaries define the word chiefly as any utensil or device for cooking.^[6][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt