cane
pronunciation
How to pronounce cane in British English:
UK [keɪn]
How to pronounce cane in American English:
US [keɪn]
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- Noun:
- a stick that people can lean on to help them walk
- a strong slender often flexible stem as of bamboos, reeds, rattans, or sugar cane
- a stiff switch used to hit students as punishment
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- Verb:
- beat with a cane
Word Origin
- cane
- cane: [14] Cane is a word of ancient ancestry. It can be traced back to Sumerian gin ‘reed’, and has come down to us via Assyrian kanū and Greek kánnā (a derivative of which, kánastron ‘wicker basket’, was the ultimate source of English canister [17]). Latin borrowed the word as canna, and broadened its meaning out from ‘reed, cane’ to ‘pipe’, which is the basis of English cannal, channel, cannon, and canyon. From Latin came Old French cane, source of the English word.=> canal, canister, cannon, canyon, channel
- cane (n.)
- late 14c., from Old French cane "reed, cane, spear" (13c., Modern French canne), from Latin canna "reed, cane," from Greek kanna, perhaps from Assyrian qanu "tube, reed" (compare Hebrew qaneh, Arabic qanah "reed"), from Sumerian gin "reed." But Tucker finds this borrowing "needless" and proposes a native Indo-European formation from a root meaning "to bind, bend." Sense of "walking stick" in English is 1580s.
- cane (v.)
- "to beat with a walking stick," 1660s, from cane (n.). Related: Caned; caning.
Example
- 1. More recently haitian migrant cane cutters have suffered abuses .
- 2. Some environmentalists claim that brazilian farmers have torn up forest to plant cane .
- 3. Turning a field of sugar cane into the granules that sweeten hot drinks is hard work .
- 4. A 31-year-old cane cutter nicknamed " bill " has six children-a throwback to the days when people had big families instead of pensions .
- 5. She handed him his cane , and walked with him to the front door .