cistern

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cisterne,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French cisterne (“cistern; dungeon, underground prison”),^{[4][5][6][3][7]} now citerne,^[4][5][8] from Latin cisterna (“underground reservoir”),^[4][5][6] from cista (“box, chest, basket”)^[4][5][7] and the noun suffix -erna,^[9][3] which Hoad thinks perhaps Etruscan, comparing caverna and taberna.^[8] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek κίστη (kístē, “box, chest”),^[4][10][11] also the source of chest.^[10] The Middle English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary also allow a direct borrowing from Latin.^[2][11] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the second half of the 12th century.^[12] The OED compares Spanish citerna and Italian citerna.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tank or reservoir for water: Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to about 1250.^[6][4] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is a Hereford document of 1375, with a chamber called the cycternechaumbre,^[2] and the OED's is the Wycliffite Bible of 1382, at Genesis 37:22.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first meaning was a storage place for water, including the pit into which Joseph was thrown;^[13][5] the Middle English Dictionary also records a cave or cavern.^[2] From the late 16th century the word spread to large vessels: one for washing or soaking in (1577 to 1756), and a large and often richly decorated basin for the dinner table (1603 to 1884).^[5] Shakespeare applied it to a natural pond in Antony and Cleopatra ("a cistern for scal'd snakes") and used it figuratively in Macbeth ("the cistern of my lust"), and Johnson (1755) quoted both.^[14][5] The anatomical sense, a cavity in an organism, is recorded from 1615, in Crooke, and at first meant chiefly the fourth ventricle of the brain.^[5] From 1702 it was used in several technical senses, such as the water tank in malting and the mercury cup of a barometer.^[5] Collins and the Shorter Oxford single out a tank in the roof space or above a lavatory,^[15][16] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged singles out an underground tank for rainwater collected from a roof.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a place for storing water.^[6][4]
• 1577 – a vessel for washing or soaking in; a laver (obsolete by 1756).^[5]
• 1587 – figurative use; also a verb, to enclose in or fit with a cistern.^[5]
• 1603 – a large basin used at the dinner table (obsolete by 1884).^[5]
• 1615 – a cavity or vessel in an organism.^[5]
• before 1616 – a pond or natural reservoir.^[5]
• 1702 – technical senses, as in malting and in barometers.^[5]
• 1815 – a vessel holding a large supply of liquor.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tank for storing water, especially in the roof of a building or connected to a lavatory: The plumber drained the cistern in the attic.^[15][16][5]
2. An artificial reservoir, often underground, for storing rainwater or other liquids.^[7][15]
3. A natural reservoir or hollow holding water.^[7][16][5]
4. A fluid-filled sac or cavity in an organism; a cisterna.^{[7][15][16][5]}
5. A laver (obsolete, 1577–1756).^[7][5]
6. A large vessel used at the dining table, as for cooling wine (obsolete, 1603–1884).^[7][5]

Word family

• cisternal

Related words

• chest
• cist
• kist
• cisterna

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ 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