Seasoning

How to spell seasoning

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce seasoning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does seasoning mean?

1. nounSalt, herbs, spices, or other ingredients added to food to improve its flavour.
2. nounThe process of drying, treating, or maturing a material such as timber or a cooking pan until it is fit for use.

Seasoning in a sentence

• The soup needed a little more seasoning before serving.

• The seasoning of the oak planks took several months in the drying shed.

• She mixed a blend of garlic, paprika, and other seasoning for the roast.

• Proper seasoning of a cast iron skillet builds a non-stick surface.

Where does seasoning come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of the noun and verb 'season', which English took from the Old French 'seson', itself descended from the Latin 'sationem', meaning 'a sowing' or 'the time for sowing'. From the idea of the right time of year, the verb 'to season' came to mean 'to bring to the right or fit state', and in cooking that meant rendering food more palatable by adding salt, herbs, and spices. The cookery sense developed in English in the late Middle Ages, and the noun 'seasoning' for the flavouring agents themselves followed naturally. The same logic carried over to crafts, where 'seasoning' timber means letting wood dry and mature until it is fit for use. Note that the spelling keeps the 'ea' of 'season' and simply adds '-ing', so there is no doubled 'n': it is season plus ing, not 'seasonning'.

How the word is built

• season (from saison/sationem: a sowing, time of sowing, hence the right time)
• -ing (noun-forming or present-participle suffix)