Oven

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈʌ.vn̩/

Definitions

1. A kitchen appliance that uses heat to cook or bake food in an enclosed space
2. A chamber that generates and contains heat to prepare or bake food through thermal energy in a controlled environment
3. An enclosed heating device used to prepare food by applying dry heat evenly from all sides

Etymology: The oven is one of the oldest words in English with a Germanic core, and it has barely changed in shape for over a thousand years. Old English "ofn" went back to a Proto-Germanic form, and its relatives run across the Germanic languages: German "Ofen", Dutch "oven", Swedish "ugn", Icelandic "ofn". Their shared ancestor probably goes back to a Proto-Indo-European word for a cooking pot, which also shows up in Latin "olla" (pot) and Ancient Greek "ipnós" (oven, furnace). The word once meant the pot itself, and the idea of a heated enclosure came later. The English pronunciation has an odd twist. In Middle English the vowel was pronounced like the "o" in "bought", and it shifted to the "uh" sound of today, so the spelling now reflects an older pronunciation. The same change turned Middle English "Coventry" and "shovel" into the forms we use now.

Synonyms: stove, cooker