cask

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English caske,^[2][3] apparently borrowed from Middle French casque (“a cask; a helmet”),^[4][5][6][7] from Spanish casco (“skull; wine vat; helmet”), originally a potsherd or broken piece,^[7][6][8] from cascar (“to crack, break”),^[9][6][7] from Vulgar Latin *quassicō, a frequentative of Latin quassō (“to shake, shatter”),^[7][6][10] itself a frequentative of quatiō (“to shake”).^[10] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the English word as possibly coming directly from Old Spanish casco (“potsherd, helmet”),^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow either French or Spanish as its source.^[11][12] In French and Spanish the word is recorded as meaning a helmet, and the sense of a barrel is found only in English; the OED calls its origin unclear.^[4][11][12] Hoad thinks this sense probably came in with the wine trade from regional usage in southern France or Spain.^[13] Dictionary.com instead takes cask as a back-formation from casket, its ending being taken as a diminutive suffix.^[14] Weekley compares the development of French tête (“head”) from Latin testa (“potsherd”), and notes that casque is the same word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A container, especially a barrel for shipping goods, in the phrase marchaundise of caske, merchandise shipped in casks: 1458, in the Great Red Book of Bristol.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century,^[7] the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 16th century,^[12] and the OED's first record of a wooden barrel is from 1557, in Songes and Sonettes.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From 1557 to 1745 cask could also mean casks collectively, the stock of casks a ship carried.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined that use as "the commodity or provision of casks".^[15] Johnson's main definition was a barrel, a wooden vessel for keeping liquor or provisions.^[15] The French and Spanish sense "helmet" was used in English from the late 16th to the late 18th century, first in Sidney's Arcadia (before 1586),^[4][12] until it was taken over by the later borrowing casque.^[4][8] Shakespeare used cask once for a casket (1594).^[4][9] From 1647 to 1727 it meant a case or shell.^[4][9] From 1728 it also meant a cask with its contents, and so a measure of capacity that varied with place, time and goods.^[4][9] In 1850s London slang a cask was a brougham or other private carriage.^[16] Since 1971 Australian and New Zealand English has used cask for cheap wine sold in a plastic or foil pouch with a tap, packed in a cardboard box.^[4][17] The verb, to put into a cask, is recorded from 1562.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1458 – a container for shipping goods, in marchaundise of caske.^[2][6]
• 1557 – a wooden barrel of staves bound by hoops; also casks collectively (obsolete by 1745).^[4]
• 1562 – verb, to put into a cask.^[4]
• before 1586 – a helmet (obsolete by 1766).^[4]
• 1594 – a casket, in Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI.^[4]
• 1647 – a case or shell (obsolete by 1727).^[4]
• 1728 – a cask and its contents; a measure of capacity.^[4]
• 1853 – slang, a private carriage, in Dickens's Household Words.^[16]
• 1971 – Australian and New Zealand, a boxed pouch of wine with a tap.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong barrel made of staves held together by hoops, used especially for alcoholic drinks: The brewery still ages its stout in oak casks.^[17][9][4]
2. The amount a cask holds, or a cask together with its contents: a cask of cider.^[17][9][4]
3. (Australia and New Zealand) A lined cardboard box of cheap wine with a small tap.^[17][4]
4. (obsolete, 1594) A casket.^[9][4]
5. (obsolete, 1647–1727) A case or shell.^[9][4]
6. (obsolete, 1586–1766) A helmet.^[4][12]

Verb

1. To put or store in a cask.^[9][4]

Word family

• casklike
• uncask

Related words

• quash
• casque
• casket
• cascara

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins