colander

Etymology

Its history is obscure.^[2][3] Most dictionaries take it as probably borrowed from Old Occitan colador (“strainer”),^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} from Vulgar Latin *cōlātor,^[4][8] with an n added in English;^[8][6] Dictionary.com suggests nasalization.^[10] Barnhart and Etymonline instead derive it from Medieval Latin colātōrium (“strainer”), altered with an unetymological n,^[11][3] and the OED calls it only akin to that Medieval Latin word, its form being due to "some perversion".^[2] Partridge thought it came from Italian colino (“strainer”), or less probably from a Latin phrase meaning a dish to be strained.^[12] All these go back to Latin cōlātus, past participle of cōlō (“to strain”), from cōlum (“sieve, strainer; wicker fish trap”),^[3][11][8] which is of uncertain origin.^[3][11][13] It is cognate with French couloir, Spanish colador and Italian colatoio.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A perforated vessel for draining liquid: Barnhart dates the form coloundour to 1368,^[11] Etymonline to the mid-14th century.^[3] The OED's first record, from about 1450, is a cookery book, where it is a vessel, usually of metal, pierced with small holes at the bottom and used as a sieve.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the many spellings, cullender, coloner, cullyandre and others, reflect uncertainty about the word's origin;^[3] Ayto cites the early forms culdor- and culatre.^[8] Cullender is still a less common variant.^[5][7] Johnson (1755) described a colander as a sieve of hair, twigs or metal that keeps back the thicker part of a mixture poured through it.^[14] A transferred and figurative use dates from 1603, in Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch's Morals, and a similar vessel used in casting shot from 1875.^[2] The verb meant to riddle with holes from 1715 and to strain through a colander from 1887;^[2] Etymonline dates these senses to 1862 and 1874.^[3]

Timeline

• 1368 – the form coloundour.^[11]
• c. 1450 – a perforated vessel used as a strainer in cookery.^[2]
• 1603 – transferred and figurative uses.^[2]
• 1715 – verb, to perforate with many holes.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1862.^[3]
• 1875 – a perforated vessel used in casting shot.^[2]
• 1887 – verb, to strain through a colander.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1874.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bowl-shaped utensil with holes in it, used to drain or rinse food: She tipped the boiled potatoes into a colander.^[5][7][2]

Verb

1. To strain through a colander.^[2][3]
2. To pierce with many holes; to riddle.^[2][3]

Related words

• coulee
• percolate
• portcullis
• cullis
• couloir

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists colander among words easily confused with calendar and calender.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.