Etymologically
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cane

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Pronunciation

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

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