Torrefy

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To roast coffee, cocoa or grain by heating until it dries out and turns brown ; to scorch or parch something with intense heat until it becomes dry
2. Heating a food or plant material until it is roasted and browned ; to dry out or char a substance with fierce warmth
3. Roasting beans or similar material until they darken and lose moisture ; to scorch something so thoroughly that it becomes parched

Etymology: "Torrefy" means to roast or parch something by heat, most often coffee beans, cocoa or grain, and it comes straight from the Latin "torrefaciō," built from "torrēre," "to parch or scorch," and "facere," "to make." The literal sense, to make dry with heat, is still visible in the word's parts: the Latin verb shows the scorching first and the making second. The English word is a learned borrowing, so it kept the Latin pattern rather than evolving through everyday speech. Its job has always been technical and descriptive, applied to processes where material is deliberately dried or browned in a controlled way, which is why it turns up in discussions of food preparation and industrial processing rather than in ordinary conversation.

Synonyms: roast, parch, scorch, toast

Antonyms: freeze, chill, cool