Smoked

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Pronunciation: /sməʊkt/

Definitions

1. The process of subjecting food, especially meat or fish, to smoke for preservation or flavor enhancement
2. Having been exposed to or cooked with smoke, resulting in a distinctive taste or aroma
3. The act of inhaling and exhaling the smoke produced by burning tobacco or other substances, affecting the body and mind

Etymology: "Smoked" is the past tense and past participle of "smoke," so its history is really the history of the verb it comes from. In Middle English, "smoked" was formed by adding the regular past-tense ending "-ed" to "smoke," and an older form, "y-smoked," with the Middle English prefix "y-" (from Old English "ge-"), also appeared. Both forms were used as the verb's past forms, and the adjective sense, meaning cured or flavored by smoke, grew naturally out of the verb. The verb "smoke" itself comes from Old English "smoca," referring to the vapor rising from a fire, and its concrete sense of a visible cloud of burning gas has stayed largely unchanged for more than a thousand years. The sense of deliberately inhaling smoke from burning tobacco came much later, and "smoked" took on that meaning as the habit spread.

Synonyms: cooked, flavored

Antonyms: fresh