coquo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkɔ.kʷoː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkɔː.kʷo]^[1]

Forms

coquō (present infinitive coquere, perfect active coxī, supine coctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kʷekʷe/o- (“to cook”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ-e/o- (“to cook”), with /p/ assimilated to the following /kʷ/, as in quīnque.^[2][1][3] De Vaan explains the /o/ as a regular change of /e/ before /o/ in the next syllable, as in coquus “cook”, from *pokʷos.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit पचति (pácati, “cooks”), Ancient Greek πέσσω (péssō, “to cook, ripen”), Welsh Middle Welsh pobi (“to bake”) and Old Church Slavonic пешти (pešti, “to bake”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it: “what cook cooked this?”.^[3][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was to prepare food by heat, to boil, bake or roast, and in technical use to burn lime or to smelt.^[3][5] Of the sun it was to ripen crops, fruit and wine, of the body to digest food, as in Cicero, and figuratively to hatch plots or to nurse anger.^[3][6]

Its noun coquus, through Vulgar Latin *cocus, gave Old English coc and English cook, and praecox “early ripening” gave precocious.^[7][2] It survives as Italian cuocere and French cuire.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cooking.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of digesting food.^[3][4]
• Old English – coc “cook” is borrowed from the Latin noun.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cook; to boil, bake, roast.^[3][5]
2. To burn (lime); to smelt.^[3]
3. Of the sun, to ripen (crops, fruit, wine).^[3][1]
4. To digest.^[3]
5. To hatch (plots); to nurse (anger, cares).^[3][6]

Word family

• cocta
• coctilis
• coctiō
• coctito
• coctīuus
• coctor
• coctum
• coctūra
• coculum
• concoquō
• coquīnō

Related words

• coquus
• praecox
• English cook
• English precocious

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com