coqu-, cocu-, coc-

1. An unsweetened bread in the shape of a small cake, made with a generous amount of shortening and leavened with baking powder or baking soda instead of yeast.
2. In British English, a biscuit is a small flat cake that is crisp and usually sweet; while the usual American word is "cookie".
3. Clay or porcelain that has been fired once but not glazed.

A small kitchen used to prepare meals: "Since the apartment was so small, they had a kitchenette to prepare their food instead of a regular sized kitchen."

Regarding the condition of requiring relatively little parental care after being born or hatched, as by having hair or feathers, open eyes, and the ability to move around: Water birds, reptiles, and herd animals usually have precocial young.

1. A reference to a person who is more mentally developed than is usual at a certain age: Little six-year-old Max is a precocious boy with his cognitive skills and intelligence.
2. Relating to something that takes place at an early stage of development: One kind of magnolia produces precocious flowers before the leaves appear.

3. Etymology: from Latin praecox, praecoc-; from praecoquere "to ripen fully"; from prae, "before" + coquere, "to cook" + -ious, "characterized by". © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

The appearance of some secondary sex characters before the normal age of puberty but without maturation of the gonads.

Unusually early development of mental or physical traits before the normal process takes place; premature development, particularly regarding a person's mental abilities: Jack's next-door neighbor exhibited precocity when she finished high school at fifteen and entered college when she was sixteen!

To grill, fry, or broil something partially or completely for final preparation at a later time; to heat beforehand: Jane liked to precook her meals so she would have prepared dinners everyday after returning from teaching school.

Hyperovarianism or sexual precocity in young girls due to premature maturation of the hypotholomic-pituitary axis and development of ovaries accompanied by the secretion of ovarian hormones.