wok

Etymology

It is borrowed from Cantonese 鑊 (wok6),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the first part of 鑊氣 (wok6 hei3).^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Cantonese word to Middle Chinese, which is also the source of Chinese 鑊 (huò).^[2] Dictionary.com likewise equates it with the standard Chinese word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bowl-shaped pan used in Chinese cookery: 1952, in D. Y. H. Feng's Joy of Chinese Cooking.^[3][4][6] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1955–60.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with Chinese cookery books in the 1950s^[3][5] and is now used in general for a large round-bottomed pan used in stir-frying.^[4][9] In British black and teenage slang of the late 20th century, wok was also a verb meaning to have sex, perhaps from whack it and not from the pan.^[10]

Timeline

• 1952 – a bowl-shaped pan for Chinese cooking.^[3][4][5]
• 1993 – slang verb, to have sex.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large bowl-shaped metal pan with a rounded base, used in Chinese cooking, especially for stir-frying: She tossed the noodles in a smoking wok.^[9][4][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com