tankard

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tankard, of unknown origin.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} It corresponds to Middle Dutch tanckaert, with the same meaning, which is unexplained too,^[5][6] and compare Middle French tanquart, in Rabelais,^[2][7] and Medieval Latin tancardus.^[8][9] The OED hazards a transposition of a form from Latin cantharus,^[2][5] and Weekley thought of a joking transposition of that word, which is from Ancient Greek κάνθαρος (kántharos), suggested by the personal name Tankard.^[9] Klein took it from Old French tanquart (“a liquid measure”), compounded of tant quart (“as much as a quarter”),^[10][5] and Skeat took it as probably from Swedish stanka (“a wooden tankard”) with a French suffix.^[11] The Century Dictionary, as Etymonline quotes it, called a derivation from tank and -ard "wholly untenable".^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large open tub, usually of wood hooped with iron and used for carrying water: 1310, in the accounts of the executors of a bishop of Exeter.^[2] Etymonline also dates the tub to the early 14th century,^[5] and Barnhart's first record of the word as a common noun is in the Wycliffe Bible, about 1384.^[12] The surname Tankart is older, from 1202 according to Barnhart, and Etymonline has surnames from the late 13th century.^[12][5]

Semantic evolution

The first tankards were carrying vessels, sometimes of leather,^[2] and the word could also render amphora.^[8][13] This sense lasted until 1688.^[2] A drinking vessel, at first also of staves and hooped, is recorded from 1485.^[2][12][5] Later it was usually a tall one-handled mug of pewter or silver.^[2][14] Johnson (1755) calls it "a large vessel with a cover, for strong drink", quoting Ben Jonson and Swift.^[15] It also came to mean its contents, as in a line from Lamb.^[14][8] In Wiltshire dialect a tankard was a sheep-bell, so called from its shape,^[2][16] and the Midlands had tankard-turnip for the long-rooted turnip.^[16]

Timeline

• 1310 – a large open tub, usually of wood hooped with iron (last recorded 1688).^[2]
• 1485 – a drinking vessel.^[2][12]
• 1796 – tankard-turnip, the long-rooted turnip.^[16]
• 1880 – in dialect, a sheep-bell.^[2][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tall one-handled drinking mug, usually of pewter or silver, often with a hinged lid: He raised a pewter tankard of ale.^[7][14][2]
2. The drink or quantity held by such a mug.^[7][14][8]
3. (dialect) A sheep-bell.^[2][16]
4. (obsolete, 1310–1688) A large open tub, usually wooden, for carrying liquid.^[2][8]

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 o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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. ^ a b c d e 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)