Seasoned

How to spell seasoned

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce seasoned

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does seasoned mean?

1. adjectiveMade skilful and reliable through long practice or exposure.
2. adjectiveFlavoured with salt, herbs, spices, or other seasoning.
3. adjectiveDried or matured over time so as to be ready for use, especially timber.

Seasoned in a sentence

• The firm hired a seasoned negotiator to close the deal.

• The lightly seasoned vegetables paired well with the roast.

• The carpenter chose well seasoned oak for the new staircase.

• As a seasoned traveller, she packed only a single carry-on bag.

• He served a generously seasoned stew at the dinner party.

• Only properly seasoned logs burn cleanly in the stove.

Where does seasoned come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of the noun 'season', which English took from Old French 'seson' or 'saison' in the 1200s, itself descended from the Latin 'satio', meaning literally 'a sowing' or 'the act of planting'. Over time that idea of the planting period broadened to mean any defined stretch of the year, and the verb 'to season' developed several senses from it: to make food more palatable, to make wood fit for use by drying it over time, and figuratively to mature a person through long experience. The flavouring sense reflects the old notion of bringing something to its proper ripeness, just as crops ripen with the seasons. By the 1500s 'seasoned' was being applied to people who had been toughened and made capable by repeated exposure, much as wood is hardened by ageing. The single 's' in the middle and the silent feel of the unstressed second syllable are the usual stumbling points, since the word sounds like 'see-zund' rather than spelling out its tidy 'season + ed' structure.

How the word is built

• season (from Latin satio, a time of sowing)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)