kochen

See also: Kochen and Köchen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German, from Old High German kochōn, kohhōn (“to cook”), from late Proto-Germanic *kukōną (“to cook”), either from *kukaz (“cook”) from Latin coquus, or borrowed from Vulgar Latin *coco, cocere, from Latin coquō, coquere. Compare Dutch koken. More at cook.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔχən/, [-χən], [-χn̩], [-χɴ̩], [-xən], [-xn̩], [-xŋ̍]

• Audio:

  (file)

• audio (Austria):

  (file)

Verb

1. (intransitive, of a liquid) to boil
2. (intransitive, of a person) to cook, to prepare food (chiefly hot food for lunch or supper)
3. (transitive) to boil (to heat a liquid until it boils)
4. (transitive) to boil (to prepare something in such a liquid)
5. (intransitive, figuratively) to be stirred up or agitated, especially with anger

Usage notes

• Intransitive kochen can be used for all sorts of food preparation that require at least some amount of work and effort. However, there is a strong tendency to use the verb only for the preparation of a proper dinner, be it lunch or supper. Hence, the preparation of, say, an onion tart for dinner is kochen, even though the food is baked. Contrarily, the preparation of breakfast is only rarely called kochen even if eggs are boiled in the process.
• Transitive kochen can generally be used only for actual boiling. Hence, ein Steak kochen (“to cook a steak”) would be understood solely as dropping a steak into a pot of boiling water.

Synonyms

• (of a liquid: to boil): sieden
• (make a liquid boil): sieden
• (prepare food in boiling liquid): garen (broader)

Derived terms

• abkochen
• aufkochen
• einkochen
• hart kochen
• Kochfeld
• nachkochen
• überkochen
• verkochen
• vorkochen
• weich kochen

 

See also

• erwärmen
• erhitzen
• dampfen
• qualmen
• rauchen
• brodeln

Further reading

• “kochen” in Duden online