Concoct

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7407
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Concoct

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Oct 31, 2020 8:07 pm

• concoct •


Pronunciation: kên-kahktHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To create or put together haphazardly, randomly by combining various materials or ingredients, as 'to concoct a love potion'. 2. To make up, to cook up, dream up, fabricate, contrive, as 'to concoct a lame excuse'.

Notes: Concocter, rather than concoctor, seems to be the preferred spelling of the personal noun from this verb. The active adjective is concoctive and concoctible, the passive. The result noun is concoction "something concocted".

In Play: Concoct means "create" but in an off-handed way: "Marigold is great at concocting all sorts of dishes from leftovers." It can also refer to creating in a mildly deceptive way: "She always concocts a clever story to accompany her concoctions about how she concocted it from exotic ingredients."

Word History: Today's Good Word was taken from concoctus "cooked together", the past participle of concoquere "to cook together", comprising con- "(together) with" + coquere [kokwere] "to cook". Believe it or not, this word was inherited from PIE pekw- "to cook, ripen", i.e. "convert to something edible". How did [p] become [k]? By p-kw assimilation in Proto-Italic, just as PIE penkwe- "five" became quinque in Latin. The PIE word became peptein "to cook, ripen" in Greek, peč' "to bake" in Russian, pjek "I bake" in Albanian, and kepti "to bake" in Lithuanian, where the [p] and [kw] metathesized. We can't derive English bake from the same PIE word because [p] became [f] in Germanic languages, not [ b]. (Let's not concoct a spurious show of gratitude but offer a genuine one to Rob Towart, who has suggested yet another in a long, long series of seriously Good Words.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

George Kovac
Lexiterian
Posts: 456
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:54 am
Location: Miami

Re: Concoct

Postby George Kovac » Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:13 pm

The beauty of prefixes. Concoct has a rare, but fun, antonym (well, sort of antonym): decoct, which means "to reduce" (in the culinary sense) as in extracting the essence of something by boiling it.
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016

David Myer
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1134
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:21 am
Location: Melbourne

Re: Concoct

Postby David Myer » Fri Nov 06, 2020 6:09 am

I don't suppose a cocktail is related? It is certainly an alcoholic concoction.

George Kovac
Lexiterian
Posts: 456
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:54 am
Location: Miami

Re: Concoct

Postby George Kovac » Fri Oct 21, 2022 12:53 pm

Metaphor alert: I recently came across this exquisite metaphorical use of "decoct" (meaning to extract the essence of something, particularly in cooking, as in reduction.)
“The transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a schoolmaster to a sailor, and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and the Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it.” (Melville, Moby Dick)
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016

David Myer
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1134
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:21 am
Location: Melbourne

Re: Concoct

Postby David Myer » Sun Oct 23, 2022 6:49 am

Yes George, lovely indeed. Well spotted.


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 26 guests