cage English · revision 7584

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1200|origins=la cavea}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /keɪd͡ʒ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fro|cage|t=cage, prison]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) from Latin [[m|la|cavea|t=hollow place, enclosure for animals, coop]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) from cavus, hollow (see [[cave]]).^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) It is related to [[jail]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ An enclosure for birds or animals: probably before 1200, in the ''Ancrene Riwle'';^(Barnhart 1988) before 1225 in the OED.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A cage for prisoners, a jail, is from about 1300,^(Etymonline) and a lock-up for petty offenders from about 1500, now obsolete.^(OED 1989) Figuratively, that which confines, it is also from about 1300.^(OED 1989) A scaffold or raised seat is from before 1400.^(OED 1989) A camp enclosure for prisoners of war is colloquial from 1919.^(OED 1989) The verb, to confine in a cage, is from 1577.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)^(MWU 2024) In English dialect use the cage was also the iron frame that works between slides in the shaft of a coal pit.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1200 – a cage for birds.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1300 – a prison.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1577 – the verb.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1919 – a prisoner-of-war enclosure.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An enclosure of bars or wires for keeping [[bird|alt=birds]] or [[animal|alt=animals]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A barred room or enclosure for prisoners.^(AHD)

+ # Something that confines or imprisons.^(Collins 2023)

+ # An open framework, or the car of an [[elevator]] or mine shaft.^(AHD)^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To put or keep in, or as if in, a cage.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cageful]]

+ * [[cageless]]

+ * [[cagelike]]

+ * [[cager]]

+ * [[encage]]

+ * [[incage]]

+ * [[birdcage]]

+ * [[cageling]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cave]]

+ * [[cavity]]

+ * [[jail]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}