Coddle
/ˈkɒd.əl/noun
To cook gently in liquid below the boiling point; by extension, to treat with excessive care.
Did you know?The word is believed to come from the same root as **caudle**, a warm medicinal drink, showing how “care” and “cooking” were once linguistically tied together.
Etymological Timeline
Late Middle English
English
coddlen
“to heat or cook gently; later, to pamper”
Middle English
English
caudelen / caudle
“to make or serve a warm, thin gruel or drink, especially for the sick”
Medieval Latin
Latin
calidum
“warm or hot (used in the sense of a warm drink or preparation)”
Latin
Latin
calidus
“warm, hot”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kel-
“to be warm, to heat”