caddy

Etymology

The word for the tea box is apparently a corruption of catty, a unit of weight,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which is from Malay kati, a weight of about a pound and a third.^{[2][3][4][7][8]} English had catty from 1598, in the translation of Linschoten's travels;^[2][9] the East India Company fixed it in 1770 as a standard weight for tea and other goods traded in China and Malaysia.^[9][3] The name of a measure of tea seems to have passed to the box that held it,^[3][9][10] and Ayto calls it unclear where the spelling with “dd” came from.^[10] Merriam-Webster calls the word a modification of the Malay one.^[11] Skeat said a small package of tea, less than half a chest, was called a caddy or catty in the tea trade.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small box for holding tea: 1792, in the Madras Courier.^[2][3][9] Etymonline has tea-caddy from 1790,^[3] and Merriam-Webster dates the tea-box sense to 1785.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word is usually found in tea caddy.^[2][5] From the 1880s, first in the United States, a caddy was also a lidded can for water, tobacco or biscuits,^[2][5] and since the 1970s any container that keeps small things ready for use, such as tools, clothes or desk supplies.^[2][11] Collins marks the word as chiefly British.^[8]

Timeline

• 1792 – a small box for holding tea.^[2][9] Merriam-Webster dates the sense to 1785.^[11]
• 1883 – a lidded can for water, tobacco, biscuits and the like (first in the US).^[2]
• 1927 – in compounds such as caddy spoon, a short spoon for measuring tea.^[2]
• 1976 – any storage container for small everyday objects.^[2][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small box or canister for keeping tea in; a tea caddy.^[8][11][2]
2. A container, case or rack for holding small things ready for use: a desk caddy for pens and clips.^[11][2][5]
3. A can or case used to pack or display goods such as biscuits or tobacco.^[11][2]

Word family

• caddy spoon
• tea caddy

Related words

• caddie

Usage notes

Caddy is also a spelling of caddie, the golfer's attendant, which Ayto says has no connection with the tea box;^[8][10] as a verb, "to act as a caddie", the OED records that spelling from 1908,^[2] Etymonline from 1900.^[3] An unrelated caddy in northern English dialect was a ghost or bugbear, recorded from 1781 and perhaps from the obsolete cad, a spirit.^[2][13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)