marmite

pot, cooking pot, marmite; meal prepared in a cooking pot; (heavy) shell; prostitute, especially one past the first youth, the "flesh pot" of the souteneur

In Middle French (attested 1388) used in the sense of an earthen or metal cooking-pot; later (17th century) also of bombs or grenades from their resemblance to iron cooking-pots. Earlier, the noun Old French marmite meant "hypocrite" (attested 1223); the semantic development is explained as the cooking-pot being covered and not revealing its interior (thus being "hypocritical", as compared to e.g. a cooking-pan or a plate). The etymology of marmite "hypocrite" is explained as a compound of marmo