Bakes

Cooks food by dry heat in an oven, or becomes hard and dry through heat exposure. Can also refer to the process of creating pottery or other items through controlled heating.

From Old English 'bacan', related to Old High German 'bahhan' and Dutch 'bakken'. The word has remained remarkably stable across Germanic languages, always referring to cooking with dry heat. The extended meanings in pottery and other crafts developed from the same principle of hardening through heat.