toast English · revision 10711

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1398|origins=fro toster|origins=la torrere}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /təʊst/, US /toʊst/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fro|toster|t=to roast, grill]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) from Vulgar Latin *tostāre, a frequentative of Latin torrēre, to parch (past participle tostus; see [[thirst]] and [[torrid]]).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ To brown by heat: before 1398, in Trevisa's Bartholomew,^(Barnhart 1988) the late 14th century in Etymonline; the NODE says it first meant to burn, as the sun does.^(Etymonline)^(NODE 1998)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The noun, toasted bread, is from about 1400,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) first as something put into wine or ale.^(Etymonline) The drinking sense goes back to the late 17th century: a toast was first a beautiful or popular woman whose health was drunk, attested in 1700 in Congreve's Way of the World.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) Steele explained it in the Tatler (1709) with a story from Bath in the time of Charles II, where an admirer, declining the water a beauty stood in, wanted the toast instead,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) alluding to the spiced toast used to flavour drinks.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Cresswell 2021) The verb, to drink to someone's health, followed,^(AHD)^(Collins 2023) and ''toaster'' as an electric appliance is first recorded in 1913.^(Barnhart 1988) To ''be toast'', to be finished or doomed, is slang by 1987.^(Etymonline)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1398 – to toast bread.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1400 – toast (noun).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1700 – a woman toasted; a toast (drink).^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1913 – an electric toaster.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1987 – be toast (slang).^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Sliced [[bread]] browned by heat.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A call to drink in honour of someone or something, or the person honoured.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''be toast'' ''(informal)'': to be finished or doomed.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To brown bread or other food by heat.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To warm oneself thoroughly, as before a fire.^(AHD)

+ # To drink to the health or honour of.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[toastmistress]]

+ * [[toaster]]

+ * [[toastmaster]]

+ * [[retoast]]

+ * [[French toast]]

+ * [[milk toast]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[torrent]]

+ * [[torrid]]

+ * [[thirst]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}