Etymologically
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cuisine

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 14:02. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kɥi.zin/[1]

Forms

cuisine f (plural cuisines)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cocīna, an altered form of coquīna (“kitchen; cookery”), derived from coquus (“cook”) and coquō (“to cook”), whence cuire.[2][3][4][5][6] Rey finds the link with “coquīnus” (see coquin) still obscure.[3] Old French also had the forms “quisine”, “quesine” and “cosine”.[7][8]

Cognate with Italian cucina, Old Occitan cozina, Catalan cuina, Spanish cocina and Portuguese cozinha.[9][4][7] The Latin word was also borrowed into Germanic and Celtic, as German Küche and Welsh cegin; English kitchen is a cognate.[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Wace's Brut (1155) cuisine is the preparation of food and the art of cooking; the kitchen as a room is in Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide (about 1170).[2]

Semantic evolution

About 1170 it also meant cooked dishes, and in 1740 the Académie records it for the kitchen staff.[2][3] From the 12th century it named kitchens in monasteries, castles and great houses, and later in private homes; the bourgeois distinction of cuisine, office and salle à manger was unknown to rural and working-class homes.[3] In the 18th century the art of cooking came to be distinguished from pastry and preserves.[3] Voltaire used it figuratively of underhand dealings in literature and politics (before 1778).[2]

Latin de cuisine means bad Latin, and français de cuisine is found in 1806, haute cuisine is in Grimod de La Reynière (1808).[3][10] Army slang made cuistance (1912) and cuistot (1894).[3] English borrowed cuisine in 1786 for a style of cooking.[11]

Timeline

  • 1155 – The art of cooking, Wace.[2]
  • c. 1170 – The kitchen, Chrétien de Troyes.[2]
  • c. 1200 – Quisinier, a cook.[3]
  • 1740 – The kitchen staff.[2]
  • 1786 – English borrows cuisine.[11]
  • 1808 – Haute cuisine.[10]
  • 1894 – Cuistot.[3]
  • 1936 – Cuisinette.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A kitchen: manger à la cuisine, cuisine équipée.[12][13]
  2. Kitchen furniture and fittings; the kitchen staff.[14]
  3. cooking, the art of preparing food: faire la cuisine, livre de cuisine.[13][5]
  4. A style of cooking; the dishes prepared: la cuisine française, la cuisine du restaurant.[14][5]
  5. (familiar, figurative) Scheming, underhand dealings: la cuisine électorale.[2][3]

Word family

  • cuisiner
  • cuisinier
  • cuisinière
  • cuisinette
  • cuisiniste
  • cuistot
  • arrière-cuisine

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1167b
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  13. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  14. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)