My 23-year-old daughter called me the other day to tell me that her landlord had provided a "new oven" for her apartment. "Do you mean you got a whole new range?" I asked.

"What's a range?" she asked.

"It's the entire stove," I explained. "The oven and the burners."

"Oh, yeah, that's what I got."

This conversation set me to wondering — no, not whether she'd invite me over for a home-cooked meal — but why we call this kitchen appliance a "range"?

"Range," which shares a Germanic root with "rank," originally meant "a line or row of something," and we still use this meaning today when we speak of a "range of mountains."

This "line" sense gave rise to the use of "range" to describe an expanse of land defined by lines or boundaries, as in "grazing range." Eventually, people started using "range" metaphorically to denote the space or extent in which certain items are included, covered or used, as in a "range of options" or the "range of a missile."

(I can hear my daughter saying, "OK, Boomer, get on with it!)

The use of "range" to refer to a cooking device dates all the way back to the early 1400s, and, interestingly enough, it grew out of BOTH the "line" and "space or extent" meanings of "range."

Early metal stoves included not only an oven but also a row of two or more heated openings atop the oven for cooking; picture a range of mountains, each topped with a fire pit. Hey, wait, that's a range of active volcanoes!

And, because these stoves provided multiple heating units, they also offered cooks an extent (range) of options. Voila!

Now, given this double-barreled derivation, you might think that the choice of "range" to describe this device would be a slam dunk. But you know those medieval cooks; they're always sitting around the kitchen griping about the high price of venison or the king's pedestrian, meat-and-potatoes diet.

Cook No. 1: If only the king would ask me to make my prized souffle!

Cook No. 2: Stop complaining. We gotta figure out what to call this new stove.

Cook No. 1: How about "thing that looks like a row of volcanoes"?

Cook No. 2: Too obvious!

Cook No. 1: Why not "multiple-option thermo-enhancement device"?

After endless discussions like this, they both finally felt at home on the "range." And since then, the modern range, which usually comprises an oven, a broiler and four or more cooking units, has fully lived up to its name, and I'm glad my daughter has a new one. Whatever she calls it.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to [email protected] or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

Photo credit: greissdesign at Pixabay