Marinator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A vessel or appliance in which meat or vegetables are soaked in seasoned liquid to flavor them ; a flavorful liquid or paste in which food is steeped before cooking
2. A container or gadget designed to hold food while it soaks in seasonings ; a seasoned liquid or mixture that food is left in to absorb flavor before cooking
3. An appliance or dish used for steeping food in flavor ; a seasoned bath or sauce in which ingredients are soaked prior to being cooked

Etymology: A marinator is simply something that marinates, and in this case it is a container: a vessel, often plastic with a tight lid, in which meat or vegetables sit in a seasoned liquid. The noun is formed from the verb "marinate" plus the agent suffix "-or", the same ending found in "creator" and "conductor," so its meaning is transparent once the verb is known. The verb itself comes from French "mariner," meaning to steep in brine or pickle, which is itself from "marine," ultimately tied to the sea. The seafaring link is real: pickling in brine was a way of preserving fish and meat at sea and on the coast. English adopted the verb in the 1600s, and its culinary sense of soaking food in a flavored liquid came with it. The noun, by contrast, is a late and mostly modern formation, built on the existing verb rather than borrowed from another language. Its appearance reflects the spread of home cooking gadgets and sealed plastic containers in the twentieth century, when a dedicated word for the vessel became useful.