RANGE

[Q] From Karen Rockhold in the USA: What is the origin of the word range as pertaining to its usage as the kitchen range or gas range?

[A] The sense is similar to the one we still use in phrases like range of mountains for a set of things all in a row. It derives from the Old French ranc, which may in turn have come from a prehistoric Germanic khrengaz for a circle, from which we also get our word ring. We borrowed the Old French as rank, which we still use in the sense of a set of things in order, as in military or social ranks or a taxi rank, and as range, which shares some senses. Range was first applied in the cooking sense in the fifteenth century; it seems to have been first used for a collection of hearths and ovens set in a row under one chimney, as one might find in the kitchen of a large house serving many people. Gas range, by the way, is an American term: in Britain, we’d talk about a gas stove or a gas cooker, though these usually have ovens included (we do have kitchen range, but only for solid-fuel cookers like the Aga which have a number of cooking positions, including ovens).

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2009. All rights reserved. Contact me if you want to reproduce this piece, but first see my advice page, which also has notes about linking. Your comments and corrections are welcome.