different between decoct vs concoct

English

Etymology

From Latin decoqu? (“I boil down”), from de- + coqu? (“I cook”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??k?kt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??k?kt/

Verb

decoct (third-person singular simple present decocts, present participle decocting, simple past and past participle decocted)

1. (cooking) To make an infusion.
2. (cooking) To reduce, or concentrate by boiling down.
   • 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality, Volume 2, page 54

     Her ambition had hitherto been confined to being the best of wives,—so she scolded the servants—opened no book but her book of receipts—made soup without meat—decocted cowslips, parsneps, currants, and gooseberries, which, if not good wine, were very tolerable vinegar

3. (figuratively) To heat as if by boiling.
4. (figuratively) To reduce or diminish.
5. To digest in the stomach.
6. (transitive) To devise.

Related terms

• decoction

English

Etymology

From Latin concocti? (“digestion”), from con- (“together”) and coqu? (“cook”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?k?kt/, [k????k??kt]

Verb

concoct (third-person singular simple present concocts, present participle concocting, simple past and past participle concocted)

1. To prepare something by mixing various ingredients, especially to prepare food for cooking.

   Synonyms: prepare, mix

   • 2007, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Well of Tears: Book Two of The Crowthistle Chronicles, Tor Books (?ISBN)

     Pecan shells make good fuel, and they are used by leather tanners to concoct their foul-smelling compounds, and sometimes we mix them with charcoal in hand-soap to make a really good scrubbing agent

   • 2014, Lisa Howard, Healthier Gluten-Free, Fair Winds Press (MA) (?ISBN), page 171:

     The twelve include Jill (she used to be a chicken-and-potatoes girl, but now she's willing to try whatever I concoct), […]

2. (figuratively) To contrive something using skill or ingenuity.

   Synonyms: contrive, plot, scheme

   • 2005, Jean Ferris, Into the Wind: Part One, iUniverse (?ISBN), page 161:

     He had two beautiful daughters who fell in love with men he approved of and he wanted to give them the most lavish double wedding he could concoct.

3. (obsolete) To digest.
   • 1703, Thomas Gibson, The Anatomy of Humane Bodies Epitomized, page 297:

     For the parts of an Embryo are nourished and encreased before it hath a Stomach to concoct any thing, and yet in a perfect Fœtus none can deny that the Stomach does concoct […]

Derived terms

• concocter
• concoctor
• concoctive

Related terms

• concoction
• decoct

Translations