concoquo

Forms

concoquō (present infinitive concoquere, perfect active concoxī, supine concoctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + coquō (“to cook”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces coquō to Proto-Italic *kʷekʷe/o- (“to cook”) and Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ-e/o- (“to cook”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus recalls how Medea boiled old Pelias.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is to cook down or heat thoroughly, and to boil together: Lucretius has scents cooked together in oil.^[2] Above all it is to digest food, and to aid digestion: Cato says that cabbage aids it wonderfully.^[2] Seneca uses it of digesting a thought: pick out one idea a day to digest.^[2] It is also to ripen crops, and in medicine to bring boils and humours to a head, as in Cato and Celsus.^[2] Figuratively it is to stomach, tolerate: Cicero writes that Diodotus could not stomach a doctrine.^[2] And it is to ponder or devise: Cicero says that something must be long weighed and considered.^[2] Celsus and Pliny the Elder also have the spellings ⟨concoqunt⟩ and ⟨concocunt⟩.^[2] English concoct comes from its past participle, first meaning to digest, from the 1530s.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of Medea boiling Pelias.^[2][4][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of digestion and of ripening boils.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of stomaching a doctrine and of pondering.^[2][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of digesting a thought.^[2][5]
• 1530s – English concoct, first meaning to digest.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cook down, heat thoroughly; to boil together; to concoct from various ingredients.^[2][6][1]
2. To digest food; to aid digestion; to digest a thought.^[2][6][1]
3. To ripen; in medicine, to bring to a head.^[2][1]
4. To bear, tolerate, stomach.^[2][1]
5. To ponder, consider; to devise.^[2][1]

Word family

• concoctiō
• concoctus

Related words

• coquō
• dēcoquō
• excoquō
• incoquō
• percoquō
• praecoquō
• recoquō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press