cuire

Forms

cuire^[1] The oldest record is the past tense form coist (about 881).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cocō (“to cook”), an alteration of Latin coquō (“to cook, burn, ripen, digest”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin verb belongs to Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, ripen”), seen also in Ancient Greek πέσσω (péssō).^[3][6] In Italic and Celtic the initial /p/ became /kʷ/ by assimilation.^[3][6]

Cognate with Italian cuocere, Old Occitan coire, Catalan coure, Spanish cocer, Portuguese cozer and Romanian coace.^[4][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (about 881), where por o no s'coist says of the saint that she was not burnt, so the oldest sense is “to burn” a human body.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “burn”, of the punishment of fire, went out of use before 1600, as did “scorch, wither” of plants (about 1278).^[3][2] Several other figurative senses, such as “to digest”, “to think over” and “to understand”, faded in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[3] The sense “to subject to heat”, of food (char quite 1155) or of other matter such as gold or brick, became the main one.^[3][2]

From it came dur à cuire (1611, of a man compared to a bird), un dur à cuire (1829), and slang cuire dans son jus (1866).^[2][3] The word also means to sting or smart, of a wound (1180–1190), and figuratively to torment, as in il vous en cuira (1660).^[2][3] The participle cuit gave être cuit, “to be ruined”, then “done for” (1675) and “drunk” (1606), and cuite “drunkenness” (1864).^[3][2] In Belgium the verb also means “to boil”, and in Switzerland “to cook” without an object.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 881 – Coist “was burnt” in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.^[2]
• 1155 – Char quite “cooked meat” in Wace's Brut.^[2]
• c. 1165 – Or cuit “refined gold” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[2]
• 1180–1190 – To smart, of a wound, in the Roman de Renart.^[2]
• 1606 – Cuit “drunk”.^[2]
• 1611 – Dur à cuire.^[2]
• 1660 – Il lui en cuira, in Oudin.^[2]
• 1829 – Un dur à cuire.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cook food by heat: cuire des haricots, cuire au four.^[9][8][10]
2. (transitive) To fire or bake a material: cuire de la brique, terre cuite.^[9][6]
3. (intransitive) To be cooking: laisser cuire à feu doux.^[10][1]
4. (intransitive) To smart or burn, of skin or a wound.^[2][3]
5. Il vous en cuira: you will be sorry for it.^[2][11]
6. Un dur à cuire: a tough, hardened person.^[12][3]

Word family

• cuite
• recuire
• biscuit
• cuisant
• cuit

Related words

• cuisine
• cuisson
• Latin coquō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1162b
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2212
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
12. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse