vat

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vat, also veat,^[2][3] the southern and western form of fat,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} inherited from Old English fæt (“vessel, cup, vat”),^{[9][8][10][2]} inherited from Proto-Germanic *fatą (“vessel, cask”).^[8][11][12] The OED explains the long vowel of obsolete spellings such as vaat and vate from the Old English plural fatu or from late inflected forms.^[4] The same Germanic word gave Old Saxon fat, Old Norse fat, Old Frisian fet, Dutch vat, Old High German faz and German Fass,^[8][2][13] and Hoad and Skeat relate it to the verb seen in Middle High German vazzen and fassen (“to hold, contain, seize”), so that a vat is a container.^[6][14][15] Outside Germanic it is compared with Lithuanian puodas (“pot”);^[8][13][16] Etymonline takes both from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“container”),^[8] and Barnhart more cautiously from *pod-.^[2] The northern form survived as fat, a vat, which had largely died out by the end of the 19th century.^[11][17] For the change of f- to v-, Barnhart and Weekley compare vixen and vane.^[2][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large tub, cask or cistern for holding liquids: Barnhart dates the form veat to probably about 1200,^[2] Etymonline the word to about 1200,^[8] and the OED's first quotation is from the early 13th-century life of Saint Juliana, before 1225.^[4] The Old English ancestor, fæt, meant a vessel or cup in general and is recorded in Beowulf.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The word narrowed from the Old English sense of any vessel to a large container for liquids, especially one in which beer, cider or other liquor matures.^[4][8] Johnson (1755) defines it as a vessel in which liquors are kept in an immature state.^[18] From the 16th century it was used of the vessels of trades: a dyer's cauldron or cistern (1548), a cheese vat (1669) and a tanning pit (1777).^[4] By 1755 the word also meant the dyeing liquor itself, and in chemistry a preparation of a reduced vat dye.^[4][19][16] A vat could also hold dry goods (1766), and between 1708 and 1821 it was a measure of coal.^[4] In Devon a vat was the bed of a cider press, on which the pressed apples stood.^[20] The verb, to put or keep in a vat, appears in 1784, and to immerse in a dye in 1883.^[4][5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – veat, a tank or large tub.^[2][8]
• before 1225 – a cask or tun for liquid.^[4]
• 1548 – a vessel for the liquid used in dyeing.^[4]
• 1669 – a cheese vat.^[4]
• 1708 – a measure of coal (obsolete by 1821).^[4]
• 1755 – in dyeing, the dyeing liquor.^[4]
• 1766 – a vessel for dry goods.^[4]
• 1777 – a tanning vat.^[4]
• 1784 – verb, to put or store in a vat.^[4][16]
• 1883 – verb, to immerse in a dyeing solution.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large tub, tank or barrel for holding liquids, especially in brewing or industry: The cider fermented for weeks in an oak vat.^[19][16][4]
2. A vessel holding the liquid used in dyeing, tanning or another process.^[16][4][5]
3. In dyeing and chemistry, a liquid containing a vat dye reduced to a soluble form.^[19][16][4]

Verb

1. To put, store or treat in a vat.^[19][16][4]
2. To immerse in a dyeing solution, or to reduce a vat dye to solution.^[16][4]

Word family

• vatman
• vat dye

Related words

• fat

Usage notes

The abbreviation VAT, for value-added tax, is a separate word, recorded from 1966 and pronounced either as letters or like vat.^[4][5][19]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
16. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ 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)