From the Old Czech “kitchen”: On the origin of the word kuchař Cover Image

Ze staročeské „kuchyně“ – k původu slova kuchař
From the Old Czech “kitchen”: On the origin of the word kuchař

Author(s): Štěpán Šimek
Subject(s): Historical Linguistics, Western Slavic Languages
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: etymology;kuchař ‘cook’;loanword;language development;Old Czech;word formation

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the origin of the Old Czech word kuchař ‘cook’. The analysis suggests that the word was probably neither derived from the non-recorded Old Czech word *kuchati ‘to cook’, nor from the attested Old Czech verb kuchati ‘to eviscerate’. The semantic and wordformative analysis of the Old Czech word-formative group containing words based primarily on the lexical item kuchyně ‘cuisine’ shows that the word kuchař is most likely a loanword from Middle High German adapted to the Old Czech lexical system, specifically to the group of lexemes containing the suffix -ař (comp. Old Czech rychtář from Middle High German rihter etc.).

  • Issue Year: 100/2017
  • Issue No: 5
  • Page Range: 312-321
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Czech
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