Cook

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /kʊk/

Definitions

1. To prepare food by applying heat through various methods such as boiling, baking, frying or roasting ; a person who prepares and makes meals, especially professionally ; the act of making something suitable for use or consumption through heating or processing
2. The process of transforming raw ingredients into edible dishes using heat ; an individual skilled in meal preparation, often employed in a kitchen ; the act of altering or producing food by applying heat to change its chemical or physical properties
3. To make food ready and safe to eat by heating it in different ways ; someone who creates meals either at home or in a professional setting ; the activity of producing cooked food as opposed to serving it raw or uncooked

Etymology: The most striking thing about "cook" is how plainly it came into English from the kitchen of Rome. The Latin "cocus" was a cook, and it crossed into Old English as "cōc" before the word settled into the Middle English "cook" that we use today. The ultimate source is a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cook, become ripe," which also gave rise to the Latin verb "coquō," meaning to cook, the root of the same family of words. The verb is a different story. Middle English formed "coken" from the noun "cook," so the person who cooked gave the action its name, not the other way round. The Latin noun and the English verb therefore reached the same meaning by separate routes, one through a job title and one through the act.

Synonyms: chef, culinarian, preparer

Antonyms: burn, raw