Etymologically
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cage

Etymology and origin of the English word cage

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
before 1200
Borrowed from
Old French cage
Ultimate origin
Latin (cavea)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /keɪd͡ʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French cage (“cage, prison”),[2][3][4] from Latin cavea (“hollow place, enclosure for animals, coop”),[3][2][5] from cavus, hollow (see cave).[2][5] It is related to jail.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An enclosure for birds or animals: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle;[2] before 1225 in the OED.[7]

Semantic evolution

A cage for prisoners, a jail, is from about 1300,[3] and a lock-up for petty offenders from about 1500, now obsolete.[7] Figuratively, that which confines, it is also from about 1300.[7] A scaffold or raised seat is from before 1400.[7] A camp enclosure for prisoners of war is colloquial from 1919.[7] The verb, to confine in a cage, is from 1577.[2][7][5] In English dialect use the cage was also the iron frame that works between slides in the shaft of a coal pit.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – a cage for birds.[2]
  • c. 1300 – a prison.[3]
  • 1577 – the verb.[2]
  • 1919 – a prisoner-of-war enclosure.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An enclosure of bars or wires for keeping birds or animals.
  2. A barred room or enclosure for prisoners.
  3. Something that confines or imprisons.
  4. An open framework, or the car of an elevator or mine shaft.

Verb

  1. To put or keep in, or as if in, a cage.

Word family

  • cageful
  • cageless
  • cagelike
  • cager
  • encage
  • incage
  • birdcage
  • cageling

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cage.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/cage. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·