dish

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English disc (“plate, bowl, platter”),^[2][3][4][5] an early West Germanic borrowing, like Old Saxon disk (“table”) and Old High German tisc (“dish, table”) (German Tisch, table), all borrowed from Latin discus (“dish, platter, quoit”),^[2][3][5] from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “disc, platter”) (see disc).^[2][3] It is related to desk, dais and discus.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A broad shallow vessel for food: about 700 in Barnhart, before 700 in the OED.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

A drinking vessel, or a beggar's bowl, is from 1381.^[7] The food served in a dish, a particular kind of food, is from the mid-15th century, 1526 in the OED.^[3][7] What suits one's taste is by 1918, and an attractive person, usually a woman, from the 1920s, at first in the US.^[3][6] A concave reflector or aerial is from 1948, and the satellite dish from the 1980s.^[3][6] The verb, to serve food in a dish, is from the late 14th century;^[3] dish it out is from 1934, dish the dirt from the early 20th century, and to disparage by the 1940s.^[3][6]

Timeline

• before 700 – a plate, bowl.^[7][2]
• late 14th century – the verb.^[3]
• mid-15th century – a kind of food.^[3]
• 1920s – an attractive person.^[3]
• 1948 – a dish aerial.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A shallow container for cooking or serving food.
2. A particular kind of prepared food: a fish dish.
3. the dishes: all the plates and utensils used for a meal.
4. A dish-shaped aerial or reflector.
5. (informal) A sexually attractive person.

Verb

1. To put food into a dish for serving, often with up.
2. dish out: to give out freely.

Word family

• deep-dish
• dishcloth
• dishclout
• dished
• dishpan
• dishrag
• dishtowel
• dishware

Related words

• disc
• disk
• desk
• dais
• discus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press