Wordwyrt

precocious

/pɹɪˈkəʊʃəs/prih-KOH-shuhs
/pɹɪˈkoʊʃəs/prih-KOH-shuhs

Meaningripened early

Common meaning: developed unusually early

‘before’ + ‘to cook’ → precocious

Journey through time

  1. Latincoquō, coxī, coctum‘to cook’
  2. Frenchprebende
  3. Englishprecocious‘developed unusually early’ · today

pre- also in: prefixprecedeprecisepredictpreface

coc also in: concoctcuisinedecoction

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin coquō ‘to cook; to ripen’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Lewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), entry coquō, p. 468 · dictionary scan

Roots

Related words

concoctcuisinedecoction

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