chef

See also: Chef, chèf, and chef-

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef (from the positions of chef d'office and chef de cuisine),[1] from Old French chief (“head, leader”) (English chief), from Vulgar Latin *capum (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap (“head covering”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (English head).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃɛf/
  • Rhymes: -ɛf

Noun

chef (plural chefs)

  1. The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
    • <1845, R. H. Barham, Blasphemer's Warning in Ingoldsby Legends (1847), 3rd Ser., 245
      The Chef's peace of mind was restor'd, And in due time a banquet was placed on the board.
  2. The head cook of a restaurant or other establishment.
    • 1849, Thackeray, Pendennis (1850), I. xxviii. 266
      The angry little chef of Sir Francis Clavering's culinary establishment.
  3. Any cook.
    • Kiss the chef. (slogan on aprons used by home barbecue enthusiasts)
  4. (slang) One who manufactures illegal drugs; a cook.
    • 1998, SPIN (volume 14, number 3, page 100)
      But trying to stop all the nation's meth chefs makes as much sense as building a wall along the Mexican border.
    • 2013, Mike Power, Drugs 2.0
      Owsley Stanley, the world's most exacting and prolific LSD chef who supplied the majority of America's West Coast with LSD in the 1960s, claimed he made so much acid not because he wanted to change the world, but rather because it was almost impossible not to make vast quantities of the drug once the synthesis had been embarked upon.
  5. (historical) A reliquary in the shape of a head.

Usage notes

When used in reference to a cook with no sous-chefs or other workers beneath him, the term connotes a certain degree of prestige—whether culinary education or ability—distinguishing the chef from a “cook”. As a borrowing, chef was originally italicized, but such treatment is now obsolete.

Synonyms

Translations

References

  1. ↑ "chef, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈɕɛːˀf]

Noun

chef c (singular definite chefen, plural indefinite chefer)

  1. A boss; person in charge, person who directly oversees the work being done

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Pronunciation

  • chef(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛf

Noun

chef m (plural chefs, diminutive chefje n, feminine cheffin)

  1. A boss, chief, head, leader
  2. Short for a title including chef, e.g. a culinary chef

Derived terms

  • chefkok m
  • sergeant-chef m
  • stationchef m

French

Etymology

From Middle French chief, from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin *capum, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Italic *kaput, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *kaput-. Doublet of cap.

Pronunciation

Noun

chef m (plural chefs)

D'or au chef de gueules, qui est des Seigneurs de Wiltz.
  1. (now literary) head
    opiner du chef
    to nod
  2. article, principal point.
    Les principaux chefs d’une demande.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  3. principal motive
    Le procureur a tenu à refaire une lecture des chefs d’accusation.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  4. (heraldry) chief; top third of a coat of arms

Derived terms

Noun

chef m (plural chefs, feminine cheffe)

Le Chef de l’Hôtel Chatham, William Orpen, 1921.
  1. A boss, chief, leader.
    Le pape est le chef de l’Église.
    The pope is the head of the church.
  2. A culinary chef, chief cook
    Créant dans des établissements de prestige de nombreuses recettes reprises ensuite par d'autres chefs, Escoffier a fait connaitre internationalement la cuisine française.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms

Further reading

Italian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Noun

chef m (invariable)

  1. A chef; head cook

Norman

Etymology

From Old French chief, chef, from Vulgar Latin *capum, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *kaput-.

Noun

chef m (plural chefs)

  1. (Jersey) chief

Derived terms

Old French

Noun

chef m (oblique plural ches, nominative singular ches, nominative plural chef)

  1. Alternative form of chief

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Noun

chef m, f (plural chefs)

  1. chef (the head cook of an establishment such as a restaurant)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Turkish kef, keyif.

Noun

chef n (plural chefuri)

  1. (good) disposition, mood
    A nu avea chef de ceva.
    To not feel like/be in the mood for something.
  2. desire, wish
  3. (figuratively) appetite
  4. whim, caprice
  5. shindig, blowout,
  6. revelry, binge; by extension, drunkenness

See also

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Noun

chef m, f (plural chef)

  1. A chef, head cook

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chef.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɧeːf/
  • audio(file)

Noun

chef c

  1. A boss; person in charge, person who directly oversees the work being done

Declension

Declension of chef 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative chef chefen chefer cheferna
Genitive chefs chefens chefers chefernas

Derived terms

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