cuisiner

Forms

cuisiner^[1] Old French quisiner, cuisiner.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French cuisine + -er.^[4][5][6][7] Meyer-Lübke and Tobler–Lommatzsch instead place it under Latin coquīnō (“to cook”) and its variant Vulgar Latin *cocīnō,^[8][9] and Wiktionary calls it inherited from Late Latin, though in French it can be analysed as a derivative of the noun.^[1] Cuisine itself is cocīna, a form of coquīna (“kitchen”).^[6]

Cognate with Italian cucinare, Occitan cosinar, Catalan cuinar, Spanish cocinar and Portuguese cozinhar.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 13th-century Chanson d'Antioche, of meat prepared boiled and roasted: Et en l'iave et en rost ont la char quisiné.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used transitively for preparing a dish and absolutely for doing the cooking.^[10][11] Balzac used it figuratively for scheming and concocting business (1832), a sense still found in the language of journalism.^[4][12] In popular speech it has meant “to question someone hard to get information or a confession” since 1881.^[4][10][11] The participle survives in the phrase plat cuisiné, a ready-made dish.^[12]

Timeline

• 13th century – Quisiné appears in the Chanson d'Antioche.^[4][2]
• Mid-16th century – The derivative cuisinement is recorded.^[4]
• 1530 – Cuisinerie “the art of cooking” is recorded.^[4]
• 1832 – Balzac uses it for scheming.^[4]
• 1881 – Esnault dates the sense “to interrogate”.^[4][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To cook, to do the cooking: Il cuisine tous les dimanches.^[11][2]
2. (transitive) To prepare a dish: cuisiner un ragoût.^[11][4]
3. (figurative, familiar) To grill someone, to question them hard to get information or a confession.^[11][1]
4. (figurative, familiar) To concoct or arrange cunningly.^[4][12]

Word family

• cuisinement
• cuisinerie

Related words

• cuire
• cuisine
• cuisinier
• Latin coquīnō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1142
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse