cuisson

Forms

cuisson f (plural cuissons)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin coctiō (“cooking, cooked food, digestion”), with its first syllable reshaped after cuire.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun is formed on coctum, the supine of coquō (“to cook”).^[6][4] French also borrowed the Latin word as coction, a doublet.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan coisson.^[3] Dialect forms include Genevan cuison and Picard cuichon.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its first record, in Aldebrandin de Sienne's Régime du corps (1256), it means a burning or itching sensation.^[2][4][5] The GLLF dates the culinary sense to the same text.^[6]

Semantic evolution

According to the TLFi and Rey, the sense of a smarting, burning pain is older than the now dominant sense “cooking, heating”, which the TLFi dates to the 15th century.^[2][4] The GLLF finds the culinary sense from 1256 and the figurative pain about 1307, in Guiart.^[6]

Beside the cooking of food, the word is used for the firing of bricks, pottery and porcelain, and in the kitchen for the liquid a dish has cooked in.^[8][6] It produced recuisson (1611) and, in the 19th and 20th centuries, surcuisson (1868) and précuisson.^[4]

Timeline

• 1256 – Aldebrandin de Sienne uses cuisson for a burning, itching sensation.^[2][4]
• 15th century – The Jardin de santé uses it for “heating, cooking”.^[2]
• 1611 – Recuisson is formed.^[4]
• 1868 – Surcuisson is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cooking, the action or way of cooking food; the time this takes: un rôti à la cuisson lente.^[8][2][1]
2. The degree to which food is cooked, doneness.^[1][8]
3. (cooking) The liquid in which something has been cooked.^[6]
4. The firing of bricks, pottery or porcelain.^[8][6][1]
5. A smarting, burning pain, as from a burn or a nettle sting.^[8][7]

Word family

• recuisson
• surcuisson
• précuisson

Related words

• cuire
• cuisine
• coction
• Latin coctiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert