cuocere

Forms

cuocere (first-person singular present cuòcio, first-person singular past historic còssi, past participle còtto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cocere, the spoken form of classical Latin coquō (“to cook”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI explains the change as a remodelling on cocus (“cook”).^[5] The classical form survives only in Old French cuivre.^[5]

The same verb is French cuire, Occitan cozer, Catalan coure, Spanish cocer, Portuguese cozer, Sardinian còghere and Romanian coace; it also passed into German kochen.^[6][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook”), whose first consonant was assimilated to the second.^[6][8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek πέσσω (péssō, “to cook, bake”), Lithuanian kèpti, Albanian pjek and Middle Welsh pobi (“to bake”).^[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, about 1230–1250.^[9] Rustico Filippi, before 1300, has both “to cook” and “to burn, parch”: Or accendete il foco, e sì cocete / cosa che spesso in bocca si metta, “Now light the fire and cook something to put often in the mouth”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for cooking food, boiling liquids and making decoctions, for firing materials, for destroying by fire, for melting and cauterising, and for digesting food and ripening fruit.^[9] The intransitive “to burn” is in the Laude di Cortona about 1260, and the figurative “to move, torment” in Chiaro Davanzati in the 13th century.^[2] “To be cooking” is recorded before 1405 in Leonardo Frescobaldi.^[2]

Love and passion are also said to “cook” a person: the verb can mean to make someone fall in love, a sense now carried mostly by the participle cotto.^[3][11] In Tuscan usage cuocersi once meant to get drunk, and cotta a bout of drunkenness.^[12] Today an affront or a defeat is said to cuocere, to rankle.^[3][13]

Timeline

• About 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the verb.^[9]
• About 1260 – The Laude di Cortona use it for “to burn”.^[2]
• 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati uses it for “to torment”.^[2]
• Before 1300 – Rustico Filippi uses it for cooking food.^[2]
• Before 1320 – Ricotta, from the participle of ricuocere, is recorded.^[6]
• Before 1405 – Leonardo Frescobaldi uses it for “to be cooking”.^[2]
• 18th century – Stracuocere and stracotto appear.^[6]
• 1934 – Scotto “overcooked” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cook: to treat food with heat to make it edible: Cuoci le patate in forno per un'ora.^[3][14][11]
2. (transitive) To fire or bake a material such as brick, clay or gypsum.^[3][14][15]
3. (transitive) Of the sun, to burn, scorch: Al mare il sole ci ha cotti.^[3][4][15]
4. (transitive) To parch the soil; of frost, to wither plants.^[3][4][13]
5. (literary, figurative) To torment; to make someone fall in love.^[3][13][4]
6. (intransitive, with essere) To be cooking: Il sugo cuoce piano piano.^[3][15]
7. (intransitive, figurative) To rankle, hurt: Quella sconfitta gli cuoce ancora.^[3][13][11]

Word family

• cuoco
• cotto
• cottura
• cocente
• ricuocere
• ricotta
• biscuocere
• incuocere
• incotto
• scuocere
• scotto
• scottiglia
• stracuocere
• stracotto

Related words

• cucina
• cucinare
• Latin coquō
• German kochen

Usage notes

The verb is irregular: cuòcio, còssi, còtto.^[15][16] The diphthong ⟨uo⟩ is usual under stress, while unstressed forms waver (cociamo or cuociamo), and the popular form is cocere.^[15][13][16] A rarer participle cociuto is used in figurative senses.^[13][11] Lasciar cuocere qualcuno nel suo brodo means to leave someone to stew in their own juice.^[14][13][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1191
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 357
13. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli