Etymologically
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culinary

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 05:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkʌlɪn(ə)ɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈkʌlɪˌnɛɹi/, /ˈk(j)ulɪˌnɛɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin culīnārius (“of the kitchen”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] perhaps through French culinaire, recorded in Rabelais in 1546;[8][9] the OED notes the French word in Cotgrave.[2] The Latin adjective is formed from culīna (“kitchen, cooking stove, food”) with the suffix -ārius.[4][10][3] Culīna is an unexplained variant of coquīna (“kitchen”),[11][3] which belongs with coquō (“to cook”);[11][12] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take this back to Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, ripen”),[3][6] and Barnhart calls culīna of uncertain origin.[8] The same Latin word, borrowed into Old English as cylene, is the source of kiln.[11][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the kitchen: 1638 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,[8][4] 1640 in the OED, in Bishop John Wilkins's Discourse concerning a New World.[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense "relating to cookery", rather than to the kitchen as a room, is recorded from 1651,[2][3] and Johnson (1755) gave both, "relating to the kitchen; relating to the art of cookery".[13] From 1796 the word was used of vegetables fit for cooking.[2]

Timeline

  • 1638 – of the kitchen.[8][4]
  • 1640 – first record in the OED.[2]
  • 1651 – relating to cookery.[2][3]
  • 1796 – of vegetables: fit for cooking.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to cooking or the kitchen: He took a culinary course in Lyon.[4][14][15]
  2. Suitable for use in cooking: culinary apples.[4][2][5]

Word family

  • culinarily
  • culinarian

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin