kaka

Forms

kaka f (genitive kǫku, plural kǫkur) (weak ōn-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ (“cake”),^[1] which Orel reconstructs as *kakōn.^[2] West Germanic has an ablaut variant with a long vowel: Middle Low German kōke and Old High German kuocho,^[3][4][5] and there is a diminutive, Old English cēcel.^[4][6]

Beyond Germanic the origin is unclear.^[4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon and de Vries compare the Nynorsk dialect word Norwegian Nynorsk kôk (“clod of earth”) and Swedish koka (“clod”), and, more doubtfully, Lithuanian gúogė (“head of cabbage”);^[4][3] Orel compares instead Lithuanian žãgas (“conical stack”).^[2] Wiktionary judges a link with a root Proto-Indo-European *gag- (“something round or lumpy”) very doubtful.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest dated citation, of 1312, reads a skip Jons kꜹko, where another manuscript has kǫðu.^[7] The plain sense is clear in a medical text of 1387: tak ost nyian ok lꜳt i vatn vellannda ok gior af ko᷎ku ok legg vid augun “take new cheese and put it in boiling water, make a cake of it and lay it on the eyes”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Norse the word is rare: de Vries knew it only from the compound kǫkukorn “small cake”, which Cleasby and Vigfússon cite from the Vitae Patrum,^[3][8] and ONP has five citations, where it means a lump or cake of some soft mass.^[7] It is common in modern Icelandic,^[9] where it names unseasoned bread, usually flat and round, anything of that shape, and sweet baked cake.^[4] In Norwegian and Swedish it means a small round flat loaf.^[3]

English cake was borrowed from Norse,^[3][10] recorded from the early thirteenth century;^[11] Finnish kakku and Sami gakko were borrowed as well.^[3]

Timeline

• 1312 – kꜹko in ONP's citation Fris 333.27, read kǫðu in another manuscript.^[7]
• 1387 – ko᷎ku and koku, a cake of soaked cheese, in a medical text.^[7]
• Early 13th century – English cake, from the Norse word.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a cake, a flat loaf.^[9][3]
2. a lump or cake of a soft mass, as of cheese in a remedy.^[7]

Word family

• kǫkukorn

Descendants

• Icelandic kaka^[1]
• Faroese køka^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk kake^[1]
• Swedish kaka^[1]
• Danish kage^[1]
• Middle English cake^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 208
3. ^ a b c d e f g de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 297
4. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. kaka
5. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. kaka
6. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. kage
7. ^ a b c d e f Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. kaka
8. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 775
9. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 329
10. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018), p. s.v. cake
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. cake