Forms: 1 cóc, 3 coc, cok, kok, 4–7 coke, cooke, (4–5 Sc. cuk(e, 5 koke, kowke, kuke, pl. cocus), 5– cook. [OE. cóc, ad. L. coquus, late L. cocus cook. Cf. OS. kok. MDu. coc, pl. cōke, Du. kok, LG. kokk; OHG. choh (hh), MHG., mod.G. koch; Icel. kokkr, Da. kok, Sw. kock. In continental Teutonic, as shown by the short o, and the High Germ. form, older than the 7th c.; in Eng. the long ó speaks to an independent later adoption from Latin, after the lengthening of original short vowels in open syllables (cōcus for cocus).]
1. One whose occupation is the preparation of food for the table: see COOK v. 2. a. orig. always masculine; applied to (a) the domestic officer charged with the preparation of food for a great household, monastery, college, ship, etc., (b) a tradesman who prepares and sells cooked food, the keeper of an eating-house or restaurant.
In sense (a) now chiefly used in colleges and ships; in large households, hotels, etc. the head-cook is usually called CHEF (chef de cuisine); in other cases distinguished from b. as man-cook. In (b) it survives in the Cooks’ Company, one of the London City Companies, and in pastry-cook, and cook’s shop, now commonly cook-shop, but is obs. as a simple trade-name.
(a) c. 1000. Ags. Ps. ci. 3. Swylce hi on cocer-pannan cocas gehyrstan.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., xxviii. (Z.), 176. cocus cóc.
c. 1205. Lay., 8101. Weoren in þeos kinges cuchene twa hundred cokes. Ibid., 19948. Nefde he [Arthur] neuere nænne coc [c. 1275 cok].
c. 1300. Havelok, 2898. Bertram þat was þe erles kok.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, V. 540. A cuke and a portere.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xlvi. Cocus in the kechine.
c. 1450. Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 684/24. Hic archemerus, a master cuke.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. ix. 23. Then the coke toke vp a shulder … and set it before Saul.
1553. S. Cabot, Ordinances, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 260. The steward and cooke of euery ship.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 35. This yere was a coke boylyd in a cauderne in Smythfeld for he wolde a powsynd the byshoppe of Rochester.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., Introd. Pref. (1675), 33. He had rather his Entertainments should please the Guests, than the Cooks.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, I. vi. 73. I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals.
1890. Balliol College (Oxf.) Rules, 4. The dinner at the Strangers’ Table is not to cost more than half-a-crown per head, and is to be arranged by the Cook.
(b) 1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 104. Cookes [B. cokes] and heore knaues Cryen hote pies, hote! Ibid., III. 70. Brewesters, Bakers, Bochers and Cookes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 379. A Cook [v.r. cok, cooke] they hadde with hem for the nones To boille the chicknes with the marybones.
1415. York Myst., Introd. 24. Ordo paginarum ludi No. 35. Cukes, Waterleders [c. 1440 title of xxxii in text, The Cokis and Watir-leders].
1467. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 405. That non Bochour … occupie cokes crafte wtyn the liberte of the seid cite.
1530. Palsgr., 206/2. Coke that selleth meate, cuisinier.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 14. We went to a boiling cook’s in Rosemary-lane.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 200. The Cooks of London, who were incorporated by King Edw. IV. bargained and sold a part of their lands in fee.
b. Applied to a woman, esp. one employed to cook or manage the cooking in a private family. Also woman-cook; cf. COOKESS, COOK-MAID.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. viii. 13. As for youre doughters, he shall take them to be Apotecaries, cokes [Wyclif fier makers), and bakers.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. ii. 4. Mistris Quickly; which is in the manner of his Nurse; or his dry-Nurse; or his Cooke; or his Laundry. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., IV. iv. 56. She was both Pantler, Butler, Cooke, Both Dame and Seruant.
1858. Miss Mulock, Th. ab. Wom., 95. I am truly thankful, and sincerely indebted to her too; for a good cook is a household blessing.
1882. Standard, 18 Dec., 8/3. Wanted, a Good Plain Cook.
c. fig. One who ‘cooks’ literature, accounts, etc. See COOK v. 3.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting, 113. Thy scrows obscure are borowed fra some buike; Fra Lindesay thou tooke; thourt Chaucers cuike.
1830. Babbage, Decline of Science, 178. If a hundred observations are made, the Cook must be very unlucky if he cannot pick out fifteen or twenty which will do for serving up.
2. Proverbs.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 19. He is an evyle cooke, that can not lycke his owne fyngers.
1575. Gascoigne, Life Sir P. Carew, 33. There is the proverb, the more cooks the worse potage.
1577. Vautrouillier, Luther on Ep. Gal., 163. There is a common prouerbe, that hunger is the best Cooke.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. ii. 6. ’Tis an ill cook that cannot like his own fingers.
1602. Fulbecke, Pandectes, 78. The Italian by-word, the woman is the fire, the man is the roast meate, in commeth the deuile, and he playeth the cooke.
1662. Gerbier, Princ. (1665), 24. Too many Cooks spoils the Broth. Ibid. (1663), Counsel (1664), 104. As every Cook commends his own Sauce; more then one Cook to a dish will spoil it.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 387. He is a Master of Cook’s Latin.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., A bad Cook is call’d the Cook of Hesdin, who poison’d the Devil.
1774. Garrick, On Goldsmith’s Charact. Cookery. Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends cooks.
3. Comb., as cook-director, cook-like adv., cook-serving ppl. a.; cook-book, a cookery-book (U.S.); cook-boy, a boy engaged in cooking, or as assistant to a cook; cook-conner, -cunner, cook-fish, cook-wrasse, the male of a species of Wrasse (Labrus mixtus); cook-housemaid, a female servant who does the work both of cook and housemaid; cook-pot, a pot used for cooking; cook’s mate, cook-mate, the deputy or assistant of a ship’s cook. See also COOK-HOUSE, -MAID, -ROOM, -SHOP, -WENCH.
1889. Pall Mall G., 2 July (Rept. of American Library). We cannot supply the demand for *cook books and elementary works on domestic economy.
1807. Edin. Rev., X. 104. Bob, the *cook-boy, comported himself rudely.
1709. E. Ward, in Wks. Cervantes, vi. To be chosen *Cook-Director of the whole Feast.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 240. The *Cook-fish is so called of the Seamen, because he so pleasantly tasteth when he is well sodden.
1882. Standard, 18 Dec., 83. Wanted, a *cook-housemaid and nurse.
1853. Hickie, trans. Aristophanes (1887), I. 41. Did you hear how *cook-like … he serves up to himself.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 23/2. A new patent colander sauce-pan and *cook-pot.
1843. P. Parley’s Ann., IV. 9. Lascaris disguised himself as a *cook-serving man.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4649/4. [He] has been at Sea some time in the Queen’s Service as *Cook’s Mate.
1763. Mackenzie, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 80. Cooks and cooks mates, who are always near the fire, suffer more by the plague, than any other set of people.
1865. Calcutta Rev., XLI. 327. A cook-mate on board a Dutch man-of-war.
1859. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (ed. 3), I. 495. The Red Wrasse … was ascertained by Fries to be the female of the *Cook Wrasse.
