Etymograph

English

spatchcock

Spatchcock may come from English spitchcock ‘eel split lengthwise and broiled’.

  1. English1500–presentspitchcock‘eel split lengthwise and broiled’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1851spatchcock

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. English1500–presentspitchcock‘eel split lengthwise and broiled’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1851spatchcock

Earliest quotation: 1851, Richard Francis Burton, The Voyage: “He then slew it [a chicken], dipped the corpse…”

The story

A derivation from (di)spatch (‘to dispose of speedily; to make a speedy end of’) + cock is now thought to be unlikely. In a few texts from the 1400s–1700s the form smatchcock is found, possibly an error or an alteration under the influence of smatch (‘a taste, a flavor’).

Every English word from English spitchcock

Today it means

noun Poultry which has been cut along the spine and spread out for more even cooking.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / English spitchcock / spatchcock

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