cuoco

Forms

cuoco m (plural cuochi, feminine cuoca)^[1] Older forms include Old Italian coco, cogo, cocu and quoco.^[2] Coco is still a popular and Tuscan form.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin cocus (“cook”), the spoken form of coquus, which the Appendix Probi already records.^[6][7][8][9] The Latin noun is derived from the verb coquō (“to boil, bake”).^[7][10][11] The OLD notes that the spellings with ⟨coqu-⟩ seem to be the older ones.^[10]

The same word is French queux, Occitan coc and Catalan coc.^[7][8] Sardinian cògu has come to mean “sorcerer” and còga “witch”: DEI explains the sense from the sorcerers' habit of boiling herbs to make love potions.^[12]

De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook”) and the noun to an o-grade form, Proto-Italic *kʷokʷo- (“a cook”).^[11] The same root is in Ancient Greek ἀρτοκόπος (artokópos, “bread-baker”).^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the first record to the beginning of the 13th century, in the accounts of Matasalà, with the sense “one who cooks for a living”.^[13] The entry notes that eight soldi were given a Corso cuoco, to Corso the cook.^[14] The TLIO's first record is in the Cremonese poet Ugo di Perso, of the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for anyone who prepares food, and TLIO records vivanda di cuoco, a dish that needs cooking, and the stomach called the cuoco dei cibi, the “cook of foods”, for the way it works on what is eaten.^[2] Dante compares the devils who push the sinners down into the pitch with cooks who make their scullions sink the meat into the cauldron with hooks (i cuoci a' lor vassalli / fanno attuffare in mezzo la caldaia / la carne con gli uncin).^[15][16]

In the Middle Ages gran cuoco was a title of dignity, the same as gran cuciniere.^[4] The proverb troppi cuochi guastano la cucina, “too many cooks spoil the kitchen”, says that the result is poor when too many people want to do the same thing.^[3][4] Cuoco is also an Italian surname that began as a name for the trade.^[1]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Matasalà records Corso cuoco in his accounts.^[13][15]
• 13th century – Ugo di Perso uses the word in Cremona.^[2]
• Early 14th century – Dante uses the plural cuoci in the Inferno.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cook or chef: a person whose job is to prepare and cook food in a restaurant, hotel, ship or private house: Lavora come cuoco in un albergo di montagna.^[9][3][17]
2. Anyone who cooks; used alone, someone who cooks well: Tua madre è proprio una brava cuoca.^[9][3][5]

Word family

• sottocuoco
• capocuoco

Related words

• cuocere
• cucina
• Latin coquus
• French queux

Usage notes

The feminine is cuoca, the plural cuochi.^[3][17] Primo cuoco is the head cook, the same as capocuoco, and a cuoco capopartita is the cook in charge of one section of a large kitchen under the head cook.^[18][9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1191
13. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3
15. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli