coquinus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [kɔˈkʷiː.nʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [koˈkʷiː.nus]^[1]

Forms

coquīnus (feminine coquīna, neuter coquīnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] A spelling cocinus is also found.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin coquus (“cook”) + -īnus.^[5][1] Lewis and Short connect it with coquō (“to cook”) directly,^[6] and de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb.^[7] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷokʷo- (“a cook”), from Proto-Indo-European *pokʷos.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is the only classical author to use it,^[7][5] in the Pseudolus, of the forum coquinum, the market where cooks were hired:^[5][8] “the cooks' market they call it, foolishly, for it is not the cooks' but the thieves' market” (non coquinum est, verum furinum est forum).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its feminine, used as a noun, became coquina “kitchen”, which has its own entry.^[6][2][1] In Medieval Latin the adjective meant “of cooking, of the kitchen”: a charter of 1277 speaks of the brother who holds the kitchen office.^[9] It is also found in the Bavarian law.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus jokes about the forum coquinum.^[5][4][10]
• 1277 – A charter of Otterberg mentions the coquinum officium.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of cooks: forum coquinum, the market where cooks were hired.^[5][3][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) Of cooking or the kitchen.^[9][2]

Word family

• coquīna

Usage notes

Du Cange records a medieval noun coquinus for a low or worthless fellow, like French coquin.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre