canistrum

Forms

canistrum n (genitive canistrī); second declension^[1] Late forms include a masculine canister and the plural canistrī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κάναστρον (kánastron, “basket of reeds”).^[4][1][5] Beekes lists the Greek word, with the variants κάνιστρον (kánistron) and κάνυστρον (kánustron), among the derivatives of κάννα (kánna, “reed”), and equates it with the Latin word.^[6] Varro already remarked that baskets of this name, which people took to be Latin, were in fact Greek.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro (116–27 BC) is the first to mention it, in his De lingua Latina;^[4][2][5] Cicero uses it of baskets holding vegetables at a meal.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was a basket for bread, fruit or flowers, used especially in sacrifices,^[4][3] and the Augustan poets (Virgil, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid) carry such baskets in their scenes of offering.^[4]

Late writers also have a masculine canister and the plural canistrī.^[2][3] In medieval Latin it still meant a basket or a basket-like vessel, and by extension also a grill and a honeycomb.^[7] It survives in Italian canestro,^[8] and English took it over as canister, at first meaning a basket.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro counts canistra among words thought Latin but really Greek.^[4][2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of vegetables served in splendid baskets.^[4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has baskets set out full of fodder.^[4][5]
• late 15th century – Borrowed into English as canister “basket”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A basket woven of reeds, for bread, fruit or flowers, used especially in sacrifices.^[4][3][10]
2. (Medieval Latin) A basket-shaped vessel; by extension, a grill or a honeycomb.^[7]

Related words

• canna
• English canister

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson