Unlike English, which no longer assigns a gender to its nouns, Latin classifies all its nouns as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Some Latin nouns, however, once had two spellings, each representing a different gender, as was the case with the Vulgar Latin craticula and craticulum. These two words meant the same thing (little wicker screen) and they evolved from the same source (the Latin cratis, meaning large wicker screen), but they differed in that craticula was the feminine spelling while craticulum was the neuter. Over hundreds of years, these initially minor differences in spelling became amplified as the words evolved in other languages. Craticulum, for example, developed into the French gredil, which in the thirteenth century became the English griddle; craticula, on the other hand, developed into the French grille, which in the seventeenth century became the English grill. Once these words had drifted so far apart in spelling, they easily developed different, but related, meanings: grill came to mean a screen-like structure on which meat was broiled, while griddle came to mean a pan, often with a criss-crossed surface, on which batter was cooked.
As a verb, this term can serve as an alternative to “broil.” It may also denote a dish that has been prepared using high heat, such as a mixed grill. Alternatively, this term may refer to a type of cooking implement, known as a “gridiron,” which features a series of parallel metal bars.