lasanum

Lasanum is a Latin noun that designates a cooking pot, cauldron, or kitchen vessel. In late antique and medieval Latin texts it appears as a container used for heating and cooking, frequently mentioned in recipes and various household or medical writings. The term is typically treated as a neuter noun, with its exact declension varying by author.

Etymology and linguistic influence are central to its interest. Lasanum is linked to the Greek word lasanon, meaning a cooking vessel, and entered Latin and then European vernaculars. In Old Italian, the word evolved into lasagna, a term for a cooking pot or tray and, later, for the baked pasta dish itself. The modern Italian lasagne (plural) or lasagna (singular in some regions) reflects this vessel-to-dish development, and the English word lasagna ultimately borrows from that lineage. The trajectory of lasanum illustrates how names for cooking implements can migrate into names for foods associated with those implements.

Today, lasanum survives primarily in linguistic, etymological, and historical contexts. It is not a living term in everyday modern speech outside scholarly discussion, but it appears in dictionaries, philological works, and culinary histories as part of tracing the origins of the word lasagna. See also Lasagna for the contemporary dish and its common usage.