Roasting Someone Is an Old Metaphor Made New
To roast is to cook with dry heat. The comic sense of roasting a person has a long history behind its modern fame.
To roast is to cook food with dry heat in an oven or over a fire. The comic sense is older than it looks: *roast* has meant to ridicule someone since the 1700s, long before televised celebrity roasts made it a format. The image is straightforward — the victim is held over the fire while everyone watches. In cooking, roasting differs from baking mainly by convention: meat and vegetables are roasted, bread and cakes are baked, though the oven does not know the difference.
- To cook with dry heat. *Roast the chicken.*
- A roasted joint. *A Sunday roast.*
- To ridicule. *They roasted him.*
- A comic tribute. *A celebrity roast.*
- Old French — *rostir*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | roast | Roast it. |
| Past | roasted | Roasted. |
| Noun | roast | A roast. |
| Adjective | roast | Roast beef. |
| Agent | roaster | A coffee roaster. |
- Roast the potatoes for an hour.Cooking.
- The Sunday roast is a British institution.Meal.
- His friends roasted him at the dinner.Comedy.
Dry heat cooking methods
- Roast — dry oven heat, usually meat or vegetables
- Bake — the same heat, by convention for bread and cakes
- Grill — heat from above (British) or below (American *broil*)
- Sear — very high heat for a short time to brown a surface
- Braise — searing first, then slow cooking in liquid
Old French *rostir*, to roast, from a Germanic source related to a word for a gridiron.
What is the difference between roasting and baking?
Mostly convention. Meat and vegetables are roasted, bread and cakes baked, though both use the same dry oven heat.
How old is roast meaning to mock?
It dates from the 1700s, well before televised celebrity roasts made the sense famous.