Cookbook

How to spell cookbook

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cookbook

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cookbook mean?

1. nounA book containing recipes and instructions for preparing food.

Cookbook in a sentence

• She pulled a battered cookbook from the kitchen shelf to check the roasting times.

• The chef published a cookbook featuring the restaurant's most popular dishes.

Where does cookbook come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound formed inside English from two very old native words. 'Cook' descends from the Old English 'coc', itself an early borrowing from the Latin 'coquus', meaning a person who prepares food, related to 'coquere', 'to cook or boil'. 'Book' comes from the Old English 'boc', a word of Germanic origin sometimes linked to the beech tree on whose wood early runes were carved. The combined word 'cookbook' is a relatively modern coinage, becoming common in American English during the nineteenth century, while British writers long preferred 'cookery book' for the same thing. Today 'cookbook' is the standard everywhere, and because both halves are spelled exactly as they sound, the only thing to remember is the doubled middle: cook plus book sit side by side, giving the two consecutive 'k' sounds.

How the word is built

• cook (one who prepares food)
• book (bound collection of pages)