Re: [tied] can, pot

The Oxford English Dictionary does not accept the Greek/Latin 'reed' > Germanic 'vessel, can' connection. It makes little sense to me too. The (NW) Germanic word is a weak feminine (*kann-o:n-) and its origin is plainly obscure.

The Latin word is actually <canna> (= Gk. kanna ~ kanne:), a loan from Semitic (*qanaw- 'reed' > Akkad. qanû, Hebr. qa:ne, Aram. qanya:, Arab. qana:h). Lat. canistrum and Gk. kanastron, kaneon 'wicker basket' are "travelling" technical terms possibly related to these 'reed' words. It seems the Gk. kano:n 'rod, bar, ruler' (hence <canon>) was also borrowed from a related source.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: <alexmoeller@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 8:37 PM
Subject: [tied] can, pot


> English "can", German "kanne", Romanian "canã", Albanian "kane:",
> Bulgarian "kana"
> in all these languages the word has the same semantism.
> If I take a look in my DEX I see Romanian "cana" = from German "kanne"
> or from Bulgarian "kana"
> If I take a look in my German dictionary I find that German "Kanne" is
> from Latin "cana" where Latin "cana" means reed, pipe
>
> So far it seems clear. The Germans got the Latin word, they modified the
> sense, and from Germans the Albanians, Romanians and Bulgarians got that
> word too. Right?
> It seems so. If we take a look in a Latin text of Festus we find as
> follows:
>
> " Cana dicunt Graeci, nos canistra et per diminutionem canistella."
>
> Well, in this case ? In this case which is the right etymology of the
> word "Kanne/can/canã/kana/kane:"?
>
> regards
> Alex