curry

curry · noun, verb¹

1. Tamilகறி (kaṟi)
2. Englishcurrey
3. Middle Englishcuryinflu.
4. English todaycurry

1747 (as currey, first published recipe for the dish in English), from Tamil கறி (kaṟi), influenced by existing Middle English cury (“cooking”), from Middle French cuyre (“to cook”) (whence also cuisine), from Vulgar Latin cocere, from Latin coquere. Earlier cury found in 1390 cookbook Forme of Cury (Forms of Cooking) by court chefs of Richard II of England.

curry · verb²

1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*raidaz
2. Latin · derived fromcom-
3. Vulgar Latin · derived from*conredare
4. Old French · derived fromcorreer“to prepare”
5. Middle English · inherited fromcurrayen
6. English todaycurry

From Middle English currayen, from Old French correer (“to prepare”), presumably from Vulgar Latin *conredare, from Latin com- (a form of con- (“with; together”)) + a verb derived from Proto-Germanic *raidaz. More at ready.

curry · verb³

From Curry (a surname), named after the American computer scientist and mathematician Haskell Curry (1900–1982) who developed the technique based on earlier work by the German logician and mathematician Gottlob Frege (1848–1925) and the Germany-based Russian logician and mathematician Moses Schönfinkel (1888–1942). It is not known who coined the term.

curry · verb⁴

Possibly derived from currier, a common 16th- to 18th-century form of courier, as if to ride post, to post. Possibly influenced by scurry.

Curry · proper noun⁵

* As an Irish surname, from Ó Comhraidhe (“descendant of Comhraidhe”). Also Anglicized from Ó Corra, see Corr. * As a Scottish and northern English surname, variant of Currie. * As an Arabic surname, Americanized from Khouri, Khoury. Compare Cury.

Words from the same roots