Kitchen Comes Straight From the Latin for Cooking
A kitchen is the room where food is prepared. The word is one of the oldest Latin borrowings in English, and it brought a cabinet with it.
A kitchen is the room where food is cooked. The word arrived in Old English from Latin *coquina*, from *coquere*, to cook — one of a small group of everyday words borrowed so early they feel entirely native. Politics later borrowed the room: a *kitchen cabinet* is a leader's circle of informal advisers, meeting where the real talking gets done.
- A room for preparing food. *A galley kitchen.*
- A staff or operation. *The restaurant kitchen.*
- Kitchen cabinet — informal advisers. *His kitchen cabinet of old friends.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | kitchen | A small kitchen. |
| Plural | kitchens | Fitted kitchens. |
| Compound | kitchenware | Kitchenware sale. |
| Compound | kitchenette | A studio kitchenette. |
| Related | cook | A trained cook. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The kitchen closes at ten.Meaning the restaurant's cooking operation.
- If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.Attributed to Harry Truman.
- Everything but the kitchen sink.Meaning almost everything imaginable.
Kitchen layouts
- Galley — two parallel runs, named after a ship's kitchen
- L-shaped — two adjoining walls
- U-shaped — three walls of units
- Island — a free-standing block in the middle
- Work triangle — the classic path between sink, hob and fridge
From Old English *cycene*, from Vulgar Latin *cocina*, from Latin *coquina*, from *coquere*, to cook. The same verb gives *cook*, *biscuit*, *precocious* and *concoct*.
What is a kitchen cabinet in politics?
A leader's informal advisers, outside the official cabinet. The phrase dates from Andrew Jackson's presidency in the 1830s.
Why is a narrow kitchen called a galley?
Because it resembles a ship's galley, where two facing runs of counter fit into a narrow hull.