cocina

Forms

cocina f (plural cocinas)^[1] Old Spanish usually wrote cozina, with the voiced /dz/ that the verb cozer kept until the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin cocina, from Late Latin coquīna, derived from Latin coquō (“to cook”).^[3][4][5][1] The OLD analyses coquina as a derivative of coquus (“a cook”).^[6]

This Vulgar Latin form is the common source of all the Romance ones, including Mozarabic cochina, which passed into the Arabic of Granada and Morocco.^[3][7] The same word is Portuguese cozinha, Galician cociña, Catalan cuina, French cuisine and Italian cucina.^[7][1] English has cuisine from the French word.^[1]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷekʷe/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook”), the root of Ancient Greek πέσσω (péssō).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a charter of 947 in Oelschläger's list;^[3][4][2] DEMel cites cozina in documents of Nájera from 1052.^[3][4][2] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) it means a prepared meal: the Cid has „grant cozina” made ready for Count Ramón, who cares nothing for it.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used cocina for the room where food was cooked, as in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1236), and for the cooked food itself;^[10][11] Alfonso X's prose has both senses.^[10][11] Covarrubias in 1611 and Autoridades in 1729 add the sense “broth”, and in some regions a stew of pulses or greens;^[12][13] Autoridades also cites the proverb las llaves en la cinta y el perro en la cocina for minding small things and neglecting great ones.^[12][13]

The 1884 dictionary added the art or style of cooking of a country or cook (cocina española) and the cocina económica, an iron range.^[14] The DLE now also gives the cooker or stove itself.^[5] In Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Chile cocina is also a clandestine laboratory where cocaine is processed.^[15]

Timeline

• 947 – first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• 1052 – cozina in documents of Nájera.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for a meal.^[9]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos uses it for a kitchen.^[9][10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin coquina and culina for the place.^[10]
• 1525 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from cozer “to cook”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “style of cooking”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. kitchen: the room or place in a house where food is cooked.^[5][1]
2. A cooker or stove with burners and often an oven, heated by gas, electricity or coal.^[5][1]
3. cuisine: the art or style of cooking of a country or a cook: la cocina mexicana.^[5][1]
4. A stew of pulses and greens.^[5]
5. (dated) broth.^[5]
6. (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile) A clandestine laboratory processing cocaine.^[15]

Word family

• cocinar
• cocinero
• cocinilla
• recocina

Related words

• cocer
• culinario
• Latin coquina
• Portuguese cozinha

Usage notes

Cocina is also a form of the verb cocinar “to cook”, which comes from Latin coquinare.^[4][1] Common compounds are batería de cocina “set of pans” and sal de cocina “cooking salt”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cocina
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 109
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cocina
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cocina
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. coquina
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. coquina
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. coquo
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cocina
10. ^ a b c d e Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 710
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cocina
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 529
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. cocina
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 252
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cocina
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cocina
17. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 472