caudle n.

kelə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "warm." It forms all or part of: caldera; calid; Calor; caloric; calorie; calorimeter; cauldron; caudle; chafe; chauffeur; chowder; coddle; lee; lukewarm; nonchalant; scald (v.) "afflict painfully with hot liquid or steam."

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit carad- "harvest," literally "hot time;" Latin calor "heat," calidus "warm," calere "be hot;" Lithuanian šilti "become warm," šilus "August;" Old Norse hlær, Old English hleow "warm."

c. 1600, "boil gently," probably from caudle (n.) "warm drink for invalids" (c. 1300), from Anglo-French caudel (c. 1300), ultimately from Latin calidium "warm drink, warm wine and water," neuter of calidus "hot," from calere "be warm" (from PIE root *kele- (1) "warm").

The verb meaning "treat tenderly, make effeminate by pampering" first recorded 1815 (in Jane Austen's "Emma"), but the connection to the other word is uncertain; it might as well derive from caudle. Related: Coddled; coddling.