cuisinier

Forms

cuisinier m (plural cuisiniers, feminine cuisinière)^[1] Old French quisinier, and the feminine cuisiniere is recorded in 1299.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French cuisine + -ier, the noun being from Late Latin cocīna, an altered form of coquīna (“kitchen, cookery”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary also allows that it may continue a Vulgar Latin form, *coquīnārium.^[1]

Littré compares Old Occitan cosiner, Spanish cocinero, Portuguese cozinheiro and Italian cuciniere.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1200 as quisinier in the epic Aliscans (ce maistre quisinier, “this master cook”), meaning a man who prepares food.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Cuisinier pushed the older word for a cook, queux¹, out of everyday use.^[2][6] The feminine cuisinière first meant “the cook's wife” (1299);^[2] it later also became the name of a cooking apparatus, a roasting device in 1771 and a kitchen stove in 1892.^[6] The 13th-century Livre des métiers of Paris already regulates the stalls of the cooks who sold prepared food.^[5]

By extension the word is used of anyone who cooks, well or badly, not only of a professional.^[2][7] In 1690 Furetière records it as the title of a cookery book (Le Parfait Cuisinier), a sense now dated.^[8][7][5] In 1881 journalists' slang used it for a newspaper's sub-editor.^[2][9] Military slang later made the familiar cuistot (1894) from cuisine.^[6][4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Quisinier appears in Aliscans.^[2]
• 1299 – Cuisiniere “cook's wife” in the regulations of the Paris trades.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “cookery book”.^[8][7]
• 1771 – The feminine cuisinière names a roasting device.^[6]
• 1881 – Journalists' slang uses it for a sub-editor.^[2]
• 1892 – Cuisinière is used of a kitchen stove.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cook by trade, someone whose job is preparing meals; a chef.^[7][2][1]
2. By extension, anyone who cooks: un bon cuisinier, une excellente cuisinière.^[2][7][5]
3. (dated) A cookbook.^[7][8]

Related words

• cuisine
• cuisiner
• cuisinière
• queux¹
• cuistot

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, 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 d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF