Etymology

simmer

S1I1M3M3E1R1

Today it means: To cook or undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point. Full definition →

First used mid 17ᵗʰ c.Middle English simperen
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

simmer · verb, noun1

  1. Middle English · inherited fromsimperen“to simmer”
  2. English todaysimmer

From alteration of dialectal simper, from Middle English simperen (“to simmer”), of possibly imitative origin. First attested in the intransitive sense. The noun is from the verb. First attested in the late 15ᵗʰ century.

simmer · noun2

From sim (“simulation”, noun) + -er.

Simmer · noun3

From Sim + -er.

Simmer · proper noun4

  1. German · borrowed fromSimmer
  2. English todaySimmer

Borrowed from German Simmer or a variant of Summer.

First known use, by meaning

  • from mid 17ᵗʰ c. To cook or undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point.
  • from 1760s To be on the point of breaking out into anger; to be agitated.
  • from early 19ᵗʰ c. The state or process of simmering.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.