A small individual cooking pot or casserole dish, often used in French cuisine to prepare and serve food; also, in older usage, a term for a fashionable courtesan or prostitute.
From French 'cocotte,' possibly derived from 'cocq' (rooster) due to the sound the pot makes when cooking, or as onomatopoeia for the clucking sound. The social meaning entered English through 19th-century French usage.
The same word 'cocotte' refers to both a fancy cooking vessel and a woman of questionable virtue in 19th-century Paris—showing how context completely changes meaning, and how language reflects the social history of a time!
French term historically applied to women in sex work or as a marker of feminine frivolity. Carries dehumanizing associations from 19th-century usage where it labeled women by narrow stereotypes.
Avoid using to describe women. If referring to the cookware, use 'cocotte' neutrally (a type of enameled cast-iron pot). Do not apply to people.
["enameled pot","Dutch oven (for cookware)"]
This term reflects historical efforts to categorize and demean women; modern usage should restrict it to culinary tools only.
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