cocinero

Forms

cocinero m (plural cocineros, feminine cocinera, feminine plural cocineras)^[1] Old Spanish usually wrote cozinero;^[2][3] DEMel also records coziner and a Latinising cocinario.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin coquīnārius (“of the kitchen”), according to the DLE and Alonso.^[4][3][5] Wiktionary takes it from the noun Vulgar Latin *coquīnārium, or as a later Spanish formation from cocina with -ero, and names the learned doublet coquinario.^[1] Corominas lists it under the noun and notes that it must have replaced the Latin word for a cook very early; that word survives in Old Catalan coc, Old Occitan coc, Old French queux and Italian cuoco.^[6]

The Latin adjective is formed from coquīna (“kitchen”) with -ārius, and Pliny uses it of kitchen vessels.^[7][8][1] Medieval Latin used it as a noun, “cook”.^[9] The loss of the /w/ spelled ⟨qu⟩ is explained by Wiktionary as an analogy with coquus (“cook”).^[1] The Spanish noun for “kitchen” comes from Vulgar Latin cocina, a variant of the Latin noun.^[6]

The corresponding words are Portuguese cozinheiro, Catalan cuiner, Occitan cosinièr and French cuisinier.^[1][10] Houaiss explains the Portuguese word as a formation from cozinha.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen: Amargos cocineros e amarga cocina “bitter cooks and bitter kitchen”, already in the sense “cook”.^[6][3][12] Juan Manuel's Libro de los estados (1327–1332) also has it.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso de Palencia (1490) and Nebrija (c. 1495) gave it as the equivalent of Latin coquus.^[3] Covarrubias in 1611 described the cook as an officer in a lord's kitchen, since ordinary people did not keep cooks, and complained that cooks were extravagant with spices, butter and wine.^[13] The Academy's dictionary of 1869 recorded the proverb haber sido cocinero antes que fraile, said of someone who has done a job himself before directing it.^[14][15]

In Chile cocinero is also slang for a person who processes cocaine in a clandestine laboratory, and in Bolivia an indiscreet talker; in Nicaragua the masculine names a rustic wood-burning stove.^[16] In Argentina it was the popular name of an old five-peso note.^[5] Spanish lent the word to Tagalog kusinero.^[1]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen has cocineros.^[6][12][3]
• 1327–1332 – Juan Manuel uses it in the Libro de los estados.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives cozinero with Latin coquus.^[3]
• 1527 – first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the cook of a lord's household.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy records haber sido cocinero antes que fraile.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cook: a person whose job is to prepare food: Busca trabajo como cocinero en un hotel.^[4][15][1]
2. (as an adjective) That cooks.^[4]

Related words

• cocina
• cocinar
• coquinario
• Latin coquinarius
• Portuguese cozinheiro

Usage notes

The feminine is cocinera.^[4][1] The proverb haber sido cocinero antes que fraile means to know a trade from having practised it.^[15][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cocinero
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
4. ^ a b c d 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. cocinero
5. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 109
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. coquīnārius
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. coquinarius
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. coquinarius
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. cuiner
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cozinheiro
12. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cocina
13. ^ 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. 473
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 181
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cocinero
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cocinero
17. ^ 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. cocinero