cake English · revision 4764

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1230|origins=non kaka}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /keɪk/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|kake]], [[bor|non|kaka|t=cake]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) related to [[gmw-pro|*kōkō]], the source of Middle Dutch kōke, Dutch koek and German Kuchen “cake”,^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) and to Old English cǣcel “small cake”, which it replaced.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Barnhart traces it to [[ine-pro|*gag-|alt=*gag-, *gōg-|t=something round and lumpy]].^(Barnhart 1988) It is not, as was once thought, related to Latin coquere “to cook”.^(Etymonline) It is related to [[cookie]].^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A flat, rather thin mass of baked dough, a kind of flat loaf: about 1200 in Barnhart,^(Barnhart 1988) about 1230 in the OED,^(OED 1989) the early 13th century in Etymonline.^(Etymonline) The first cakes were small flat bread rolls baked hard on both sides.^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the early 15th century cakes were treated as fancy bread, made with flour, sugar, butter and other ingredients;^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) the round, flat shape survives in ''fishcake'' and ''potato cake''.^(Cresswell 2021) In Scotland, Wales and the north of England a cake was long a thin, hard-baked oatcake.^(OED 1989)^(Hoad 1986) Any flat, rounded mass of a substance, such as soap, was called a cake from the mid-15th century.^(Etymonline) The verb, to form into a hard mass, is from 1607, in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) ''Have one's cake and eat it'' goes back to John Heywood's proverbs (1562).^(Etymonline) ''Take the cake'' is American English from 1847, and ''piece of cake'', something easy, from 1936.^(Etymonline) The “let them eat cake” story is found in Rousseau's Confessions, long before Marie Antoinette, with whom it has been associated since about 1870.^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1200 – a flat loaf.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * early 15th century – a sweet baked food.^(Etymonline)

+ * mid-15th century – any flat rounded mass.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1562 – eat your cake and have your cake.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1607 – verb, to form into a cake.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1847 – ''take the cake''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1936 – ''piece of cake''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A sweet baked food made from [[flour]], sugar, eggs and fat.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A flat, rounded mass of food, such as a [[pancake]] or fishcake.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A compact block of a substance: ''a cake of soap''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To cover with a thick layer of something that dries hard: ''boots caked with mud''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To form into a hard mass.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cakey]]

+ * [[caky]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cookie]]

+ * [[pancake]]

+ * [[cupcake]]

+ * [[cakewalk]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}