Baste
/beɪst/noun
To moisten or coat food with fat or liquid while cooking; also, to sew with large temporary stitches.
Did you know?The cooking sense of *baste* developed later from the earlier sewing sense, and both likely trace back to an old Germanic idea of fastening or stitching in place.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*bastjaną
“to bind, stitch, or fasten”
Old French
OF
baster
“to sew with large stitches; to tack loosely”
Middle English
ME
basten
“to sew loosely with large stitches”
16th Century
English
baste
“to moisten meat while roasting by spooning fat or juices over it”
Modern English
English
baste
“to moisten or coat food during cooking; to sew temporarily with large stitches”