# The cook is cooking in the kitchen



## ThomasK

When you translate this sentence in Dutch, you have three words with the same stem, three derivations: _*De kok kookt in de keuken*_.

But then: how about your language? Do you use one stem for the three words? Or do you have problems translating the sentence in some way?

Rumanian is said not to have this general verb of cooking, or in other languages only two resemble one another… So: looking forward!


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## Language Hound

All three words (cook, cooking, kitchen) are related etymologically in English.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Do you use *one stem* for the three words?"
From the _Online Etymology Dictionary_:





> *kitchen (n.)*
> "room in which food is cooked, part of a building fitted out for cooking," c. 1200, from Old English cycene "kitchen," from Proto-Germanic *kokina (source also of Middle Dutch cökene, Old High German chuhhina, German Küche, Danish kjøkken), probably borrowed from Vulgar Latin *cocina (source also of French cuisine, Spanish cocina), a variant of Latin coquina "kitchen," from fem. of coquinus "of cooks," from coquus "cook," from coquere "to cook" (from PIE root *pekw- "to cook, ripen").


The _Oxford Living Dictionaries_ says the following about the origin of _kitchen:_


> *Origin*
> Old English cycene, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch keuken and German Küche, based on Latin coquere ‘to cook’.



With that said, I have to say that I don't find "The cook is cooking in the kitchen" to be a very natural sentence in English--except, perhaps, in a children's book which aims to teach vocabulary.
Where else would a cook cook?
Also, I don't like the repetition of "The *cook *is *cooking*."  That's generally what a cook does.
I might say: _The cook is working in the kitchen (right now)._


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## AndrasBP

Hungarian:

A szakács a konyhában főz. = The cook is cooking in the kitchen.
We have three different roots for the three meanings.

szakács /'sɒka:ʧ/= "cook (noun)", apparently an old loanword from Russian, where it is also a loan, possibly of Turkic origin.
főz /fø:z/ = "to cook (transitive)", an old word of Finno-Ugric origin
konyha /'koɲhɒ/ = "kitchen", from South Slavic "kuhinja" (through metathesis), ultimately from Latin


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## ThomasK

@Language Hound: I was afraid it did not work out well. I could not refer to Dutch in the Dutch, and therefore I tried a translation, though clumsily. I did realize it did not sound so very well, but how would you render it in better English? I suppose there is some way of adapting it... _The cook was preparing food in …?_


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## Graciela J

In Spanish:

El cocinero cocina en la cocina.

"Cocina" means "kitchen" and "stove".


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## Language Hound

ThomasK said:


> @Language Hound:...but how would you render it in better English? I suppose there is some way of adapting it... _The cook was preparing food in …?_


It sounds much better to me if you don't put the place ('the kitchen") at the end, e.g.,
_The cook is in the kitchen preparing food _(as opposed, say, to at the market buying food).

By "Do you use one stem for the three words?" do you perhaps mean: _Do the three words share the same root?_


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## AndrasBP

Language Hound said:


> With that said, I have to say that I don't find "The cook is cooking in the kitchen" to be a very natural sentence in English





Language Hound said:


> It sounds much better to me if you don't put the place ('the kitchen") at the end, e.g.,


I think we're all aware that this sentence doesn't sound natural in any language. This thread is not about usage, but etymology.


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## Language Hound

AndrasBP said:


> I think we're all aware that this sentence doesn't sound natural in any language. This thread is not about usage, but etymology.


My apologies.  This is my first foray into the "All Languages" Forum.  I would have thought that if the etymology of the three words were the topic, the thread title would read: _Cook, Cooking, Kitchen_ or something like that but, then again, I am not very familiar with the conventions of this All Languages forum.  The OP did also ask: "Or do you have problems translating the sentence in some way?" and then later, "how would you render it in better English?"


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## apmoy70

Greek:

*«Ο μάγειρας μαγειρεύει στην κουζίνα»* [ɔ ˈma.ʝi.ɾas ma.ʝiˈɾe.vi stiŋ guˈzi.na]

-MoGr *«μάγειρας, -ρισσα»* [ˈma.ʝi.ɾas] (masc.), [maˈʝi.ɾi.sa] (fem.) --> _cook_ < Classical masc. *«μάγειρος» mắgei̯rŏs* (masc.), *«μαγείραινᾱ» măgeí̯rai̯nā* (fem.), Koine *«μαγείρισσᾱ» măgeí̯rissā* (fem.) --> _slaughterer, butcher, cook_ (of unknown etymology, could be Pre-Greek, could be related to *«μάχαιρᾱ» mắkʰai̯rā* --> _large knife, butchery knife_, could be a borrowing).

-MoGr v. *«μαγειρεύω»* [ma.ʝiˈɾe.vɔ] --> _to cook_ < Classical v. *«μαγειρεύω» măgei̯reú̯ō* --> _to cut up, butcher, cook_, is a denominative from *«μάγειρος»*.

-MoGr *«κουζίνα»* [kuˈzi.na] (fem.) --> _kitchen, stove_ < Ven. cusina.


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## Sardokan1.0

It's the same in the Romance languages. All three words derive from the same Latin root

_*Italian :* Il cuoco sta cucinando in cucina
*Sardinian :* Su coghinéri est coghinende in coghina

*Latin :* Coquus, Coquinare, Coquina -> *Italian :* Cuoco, Cucinare, Cucina
*Latin :* Coquinarius, Coquinare, Coquina -> *Sardinian :* Coghinéri, Coghinare, Coghina_


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## TheCrociato91

Sardokan1.0 said:


> *Italian :* Il cuoco sta cucinando in cucina



Or even: _il cuoco cucina nella / in cucina_, where _cucina_ is both the 3rd person singular of the present tense of the verb "to cook" (_cucinare_) and the room "kitchen" (and also the term "cuisine").


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## ThomasK

Thanks a lot, everyone. @Language Hound: I use that sentence as a funny (...) pronunciation exercise for my DutchFL learners. I realized it was not that good or natural, but I wanted to check whether you had a word with the root, sorry. (In Dutch we can use "stam", and therefore I mixed up the two... )

@apmoy70: are there any word containing the *μαγειρεύω *root in European languages? Can it be linked with "stomach" and "stoma"?


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## apmoy70

ThomasK said:


> @apmoy70: are there any word containing the *μαγειρεύω *root in European languages? Can it be linked with "stomach" and "stoma"?


Unfortunately no, per Beekes the alternative forms of μάγειρος, *«μάγῑρος» mắgīrŏs* (Doric), *«μάγοιρος» mắgoi̯rŏs* (Aeolic) point to Pre-Greek substratum.


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## Yendred

In French, two words are identical (homographs and homophones), the third is rather close:
_Le *cuisinier cuisine *dans la *cuisine.* _
The first "_cuisine_" is the verb _cuisiner (to cook) _conjugated in the present tense. The second "_cuisine_" is the noun (kitchen).
Of course usually, unless we want to make a pun, we would not say it this way. We would say something like:
_Le cuisinier est dans la cuisine en train de faire à manger._

One other example I like of two words that are homographs but not homophones is the sentence:
_Les poules du *couvent *_[kuvã] _*couvent *_[kuv]_._ (The hens of the convent are brooding).
It drives automatic translators crazy.


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## ThomasK

I guessed so, but I wanted to see whether you could use the same root mainly. But the English cooking would probably have to be paraphrased: _cuisiner_ is not very common, I suppose.


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## Yendred

ThomasK said:


> _cuisiner_ is not very common, I suppose.



_cuisiner _is more commonly used in a transitive way: _Qu'est-ce que tu cuisines ?_
In an intransitive way, we prefer saying _"faire la cuisine"_ or _"faire à manger"._


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## bibax

We have had a similar thread "The baker bakes bread in his bakery". 

Czech:

1. *Kuchař (kuchařka) vaří v kuchyni.*

also

2. *Kuchař kuchtí v kuchyni.*
3. *Kuchař kuchá v kuchyni.* (The cook is gutting ...)

kuchař = cook, Koch;
kuchařka = female "cookess", Köchin;
kuchtík = cook (novice, élève), Küchenjunge;
kuchyně = kitchen/cuisine, Küche;
kuchtiti = to cook (expressively, pejoratively);
kuchati = in Old Czech _to cook_, nowadays it means _to gut, to eviscerate_;

All words except the verb *vařiti* have the same root *kuch-* [kux-] from German, ultimately from Latin.

The verb *vařiti* means to boil sth, figuratively to cook meal, the reflexive *vařiti se* means to be boiling (voda se vaří = water is boiling [is being boiled?], also krev se mi vaří = my blood is boiling [by anger], ...). In a narrower sense the verb *vařiti* means to prepare meal in boiling water (in contrast with roasting, grilling, broiling).

*Kuchař vaří v kuchyni* is correct and stylistically neutral, althought it sounds like a sentence from the Comenii Orbis pictus.


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## hui

*Finnish:*
_Keittäjä keittää (keittoa) keittiössä._ = The cook is cooking (soup) in a kitchen.

_keittäjä_ = a cook; lit. "cooker", person who cooks
_keittää_ = to cook ([in] liquid), to boil
_(keitto_ = soup)
_keittiö_ = kitchen


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## Dymn

*Catalan*: _el cuiner cuina a la cuina_


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## ThomasK

The baker version is probably different n the sense that baking is more specific. I might have a look. Thanks for the hint, Bibax!

I suppose in some cases the general activity cannot be named, though so far lots of languages seem to have the three in one root.

Finnish adds something, I notice… Thanks, all of you!


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## Stoggler

Welsh is:

Mae’r cogydd yn coginio yn y gegin.

Cogydd (noun, i.e. the person) and coginio (the verb-noun ‘cooking’) are both from Latin coquō.  The -ydd ending is a fairly common agent suffix in Welsh, and -io is a very common verb-noun marker.

Cegin (or, as in this case, its mutated form of gegin), is also from Latin - coquīna.

So ultimately the three words come from the same Latin root.


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## Ghabi

Arabic: 
يطبخ الطباخ في المطبخ
yaTbuxu-T-Tabbaaxu fi-l-maTbax


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## ThomasK

hui said:


> *Finnish:*
> _Keittäjä keittää (keittoa) keittiössä._ = The cook is cooking (soup) in a kitchen.
> 
> _keittäjä_ = a cook; lit. "cooker", person who cooks
> _keittää_ = to cook ([in] liquid), to boil
> _(keitto_ = soup)
> _keittiö_ = kitchen


I suppose the soup refers to a "meal soup", a kind of nutritious mixture of vegetables, meat, etc., meant to represent a full meal, as cooking is considered to be very general. Or is you _*keittää*_ not very general? That is something we know as well: water kookt and ik kook in de keuken. In other words for boiling and cooking we use the same verb. But I'll make this a separate thread...


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## Armas

Another verb is _laittaa_ which means "make" or "prepare" in this context. (It has other meanings as well.)

_laittaa puuroa_ "to cook porridge"
_laittaa aamiaista_ "to cook breakfast"
_laittaa ruokaa_ "to cook food"

Cooking skill is _ruoanlaittotaito_, literally "food's-preparing-skill."

We also have the verb _kypsentää_ "to cook" from _kypsä_ "ripe; cooked, done". The difference is that _laittaa lihaa_ means "to cook/prepare a meat dish" while _kypsentää lihaa_ means "to cook meat (until it's done)".

I would probably not use _keittää_ if the cooking doesn't involve boiling or simmering.


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## ThomasK

OK, so we could say there is no one verb for cooking. You seem to distinguish between three when referring to the cooking process…


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## Frieder

*German*: Der Koch kocht in der Küche.

All three words...

Der Koch - the cook
kocht - cooks
Küche - kitchen

...derive from Latin.


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