10 JULY 1993, Page 23

The last word

Sir: Recipe and receipt did, indeed, enter English at about the same time (and are derived from the same Latin verb), but contrary to what Dr Davis writes (Letters, 26 June) it is receipt that meant, from its introduction, components and how to mix and treat them. Recipe is the second per- son singular imperative of recipere and was used as such. It was the end of the 16th cen- tury before it meant prescription and the middle of the 18th century before it was applied to ingredients and method of cook- ing. Recipe, represented by a capital R with a line crossing the tail, is still used in medi- cal prescriptions.

Charles Fyffe

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