flask

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English flask (“cask, keg; case”),^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin flasca and flascō (“container, bottle”),^[3][4][2][5] which Collins takes through Old French flasque, flaske.^[6] The form flascō is found about 600 in Gregory's “Dialogues”, where it is a vernacular word for a small wooden keg of wine carried on a journey.^[7] In the 16th century the word was taken again borrowed from Middle French flasque (“powder flask”),^{[8][9][10][11]} which Merriam-Webster derives from Old Spanish frasco;^[8] the sense of a long-necked bottle, from the late 17th century, was probably influenced by Italian fiasco.^{[11][5][9][10]} The word is found in nearly all the Germanic and Romance languages, and whether Late Latin took it from Germanic or the reverse is undetermined.^[7][4][12] The Germanic forms include Old English flasce, more usually flaxe, Old High German flasca, Middle Dutch flasce and German Flasche,^[7][3][13] from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ;^[14] the Old English word, which would normally have become flash in modern English, did not survive into Middle English.^[7][4][12] If the word is Germanic, its first sense may have been a bottle plaited round, and Etymonline and Klein compare Old High German flehtan (“to weave”) and Old English fleohtan (“to braid, plait”).^[4][13] Another proposal derives the Late Latin word from Latin vāsculum (“small vessel”);^[4][12] Etymonline also allows that both Latin and Germanic may have taken it from Celtic.^[4] It is related to flagon and fiasco.^[12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A case, then a cask or keg: Barnhart dates flaske "case" to 1355–56 and the sense "cask or keg" to 1393;^[3] the Middle English Dictionary's first record, from 1393, is a Latin account of four pairs of tin flaskis bought to hold wine.^[2] The OED counts the Old English word as the same: a vessel of wood or skin for carrying liquor, in Wærferth's translation of Gregory's Dialogues.^[7][11]

Semantic evolution

Hoad traces three stages: a container for wine or clothing in the 14th century, a case for gunpowder in the 16th, and a long-necked wine bottle in the 17th.^[9] The OED records the powder case from 1549, in the Acts of the Privy Council,^[7] and the round, long-necked bottle, often covered in wicker, from 1693, in Southerne's Maid's Last Prayer.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, a bottle and a powder-horn, quoting Shakespeare for the second.^[15] In founding, a flask was from 1697 a frame holding part of a sand mould, perhaps a distinct word;^[7] from 1814, in Scott's Waverley, it was a flat bottle carried in the pocket;^[7] since 1859 it has also been, in dentistry, a metal case holding a denture during vulcanization.^[7] A verb, to put into a flask, is recorded from 1855, in Browning.^[7][11] In the dialects of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset a flask was a vessel of water for washing or a limp straw basket.^[16][7]

Timeline

• 1355–56 – flaske, a case.^[3]
• 1393 – a cask or keg.^[2][3]
• 1549 – a case for gunpowder.^[7]
• 1693 – a round bottle with a long neck.^[7]
• 1697 – in founding, a frame for a mould.^[7]
• 1814 – a flat pocket bottle.^[7]
• 1855 – verb, to put into a flask.^[7]
• 1859 – in dentistry, a case for a denture.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bottle with a narrow neck, especially one of glass used in a laboratory: She swirled the flask over the burner.^[6][8][7]
2. A small, flat bottle of metal or glass for carrying liquor in the pocket; a hip flask.^[6][8][7]
3. A vacuum flask.^[6]
4. A container for gunpowder, usually of horn, metal or leather; a powder flask.^[6][8][7]
5. (founding) A frame or box holding the sand of a mould for casting.^[6][8][7]
6. (dentistry) A metal case holding a denture while it is processed.^[8][7]
7. (engineering) A container for carrying spent nuclear fuel.^[6]

Verb

1. To put into a flask, especially to place a denture in a flask for processing.^[8][7][11]

Word family

• Dewar flask
• Erlenmeyer flask
• Florence flask
• powder flask
• vacuum flask

Related words

• flagon
• fiasco

Usage notes

An unrelated flask, the bed of a gun-carriage, was used from 1578 to 1721; it was borrowed from French flasque, one of the cheeks of a gun-carriage.^[7][13][17]

References

1. ^ 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 d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e 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 Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House