tun

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tunne, later tonne,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English tunne (“cask, barrel”).^[2][3][5] Wiktionary takes it through Proto-Germanic *tunnǭ.^[1] It has cognates in Old Frisian tunne, Middle Low German tunne, Middle Dutch tonne, modern Dutch ton, Old High German tunna, modern German Tonne, and late Old Norse tunna,^[2][6] and the word also appears in Medieval Latin tunna, recorded in the 9th century, Old French tonne, Old Occitan tona and Middle Irish tunna.^[2] Its further origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Ayto derive the Germanic words from the Medieval Latin form, probably of Gaulish origin.^[7][6][8][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart note a comparison with Middle Irish and Old Irish words for "hide, skin", which would make the first sense "wine-skin",^[10][11][2] but the OED thinks the Irish word for a cask looks borrowed, and finds the word as old or older in the Low German group of languages, including Old English, than anywhere else.^[2] Weekley guessed at a seafaring word of Low German origin.^[12] The word ton began as a spelling of tun applied to its capacity, and the two were differentiated in use from about 1688.^[2][3][9] A diminutive, Old French tonel, is the source of tunnel.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large cask or barrel: in the Old English Corpus Glossary, which the OED dates to about 725 and calls apparently the earliest trace of the word in any language.^[2] Barnhart gives "before 800".^[11] Bosworth–Toller quotes Twá tunnan fulle hlútres aloð, two tuns full of clear ale, from the Chronicle at 852.^[5]

Semantic evolution

A cask could also be a standard quantity: by about 1400 tun was a measure of capacity, usually two pipes or four hogsheads,^[2][6] and by the late 14th century the same word, spelled ton, was used for a quantity of many goods; by the end of the 15th century it was also a unit of weight.^[3][9] Middle English also used it for any large vessel, tub or chest, until the early 17th century.^[2][6] Chaucer has it 9 times and Gower 15, nearly always as tonne.^[13] Brewers applied it to the mashing or fermenting vat from the early 18th century,^[2][6] and the English Dialect Dictionary records this vat in Kent.^[14] The shape gave further uses: a chimney, from 1463, surviving in the dialects of Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset,^[2][14] and a large round person or body.^[10][6] The verb, "to put in a tun", is from the 15th century.^[2][6] From 1589 it also meant to drink to excess,^[2][6] a sense the English Dialect Dictionary found in Yorkshire, Lancashire and other counties as to drink heartily or greedily.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 725 – a large cask or barrel, in the Corpus Glossary.^[2] Barnhart gives before 800.^[11]
• before 1225 – any large vessel, tub or chest (obsolete by 1601).^[2]
• 1340 – the spelling tonne, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.^[11]
• c. 1400 – a cask of definite capacity; a measure of capacity for wine and other liquids.^[2] Etymonline dates the measure to the late 14th century.^[3]
• 1426 – verb, to put or store in a tun.^[2]
• 1463 – a chimney.^[2]
• c. 1503 – the name of a prison in Cornhill, London (until 1598).^[2]
• 1555 – a kind of cup or small drinking vessel.^[2]
• 1589 – verb, figuratively, to drink to excess, in Nashe.^[2]
• 1713 – a brewer's mashing or fermenting vat.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large cask or barrel, especially for wine or beer: The cellar held two oak tuns of sherry.^[15][10][2]
2. A brewer's vat for mashing or fermenting.^[15][10][2]
3. A former measure of capacity for liquids, especially one of 252 wine gallons.^[15][10][2]
4. Something shaped like a large barrel, as a stout person's body.^[10][6]
5. A kind of cup or small drinking vessel.^[2][6]
6. (dialect) A chimney or chimney pot.^[10][2][14]
7. (obsolete, before 1225–1601) Any large vessel, such as a tub or chest.^[2][6]

Verb

1. (archaic) To put or store in a tun.^[10][2][15]
2. (archaic) To drink greedily or to excess; to pour down.^[10][2][14]

Word family

• tundish
• tunnage
• mash tun
• tun-bellied

Related words

• ton
• tonne
• tonnage
• tonneau
• tunnel

Usage notes

A tun is also a Maya period of 360 days, from a Mayan word,^[10] and Tun is an honorary title in Malaysia, recorded before 1811, a borrowing from Malay.^[2][6]

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 p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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)
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins