cane

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cane, borrowed from Old French cane (“reed, cane, spear”) (Modern French canne),^[2][3][4][5] through Old Occitan cana,^[6][7][8] from Latin canna (“reed, cane; tube”),^[2][3][9] from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”).^[2][3][6] The Greek word is of Semitic origin;^[9][6][8] it is compared with Akkadian qanû (“reed, tube”), Modern Hebrew קָנֶה (qāneh, “reed”) and Arabic قَنَاة (qanāh, “reed, hollow stick”).^[3][6][7][5] Barnhart and Ayto trace the Akkadian word further to Sumerian gin (“reed”),^[7][10] while Etymonline calls that only possible.^[2] In Latin the sense was widened from a hollow reed to a tube or pipe,^[3][10] the source of canal, channel, cannon and canyon.^[10] The verb was formed from the noun in the 17th century.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The long, slender, jointed stem of certain giant reeds and grasses such as bamboo and sugar cane: 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[3][11][12] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From 1590 the word meant a length of cane used as a walking stick or as a rod for beating;^[3][7][2] Johnson (1755) defined it first as a strong reed "of which walking staffs are made".^[13] From the Latin sense of a pipe came the obsolete English sense of a tube, in later use a slender glass tube (1430–1722),^[3][12] and the word was also used for a dart made of reed (1581–1677).^[3] The verb meant to beat with a cane from the 1660s,^[2][3][6] and in the 19th century also to fit a chair with woven cane.^[3][6] In British slang cane has meant to punish severely or treat roughly since 1925, and to defeat heavily since 1961;^[3][14] since 1991 it has also meant to consume drink or drugs to excess.^[3]

Timeline

• 1398 – the stem of a giant reed or grass.^[3]
• 1430–1722 – a pipe or tube.^[3]
• 1590 – a walking stick; a rod for beating.^[3][7]
• a1667 – verb, to beat with a cane.^[3]
• 1782 – sugar cane.^[3]
• 1885 – verb, to fit a chair with cane.^[3]
• 1925 – (British slang) to punish severely.^[3][14]
• 1961 – (British, sport) to defeat heavily.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The hollow or pithy jointed stem of a giant reed or grass, such as bamboo, or the solid stem of a slender palm such as rattan.
2. A plant with such stems, especially sugar cane.
3. A walking stick: She walked to the shop with the help of a cane.
4. A thin rod used for flogging, formerly as a punishment in schools; with the, such punishment.
5. Split stems of rattan or similar plants woven into the seats and backs of chairs, or into wickerwork.
6. The woody stem of a raspberry, blackberry or similar plant.

Verb

1. To beat with a cane as a punishment.
2. To make or repair a chair seat with woven cane.
3. (British slang) To defeat heavily; also, to do something fast or to excess.

Word family

• caner
• canelike
• cany
• canebrake
• canecutter
• caneware
• canework
• recane

Related words

• canal
• channel
• cannon
• canyon
• canister
• canon

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com