Cane

How to spell cane

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cane

What does cane mean?

1. nounA slender stick used for support when walking, or the long jointed stem of a plant such as bamboo or sugar.
2. verbTo beat someone with a cane as a punishment.

Cane in a sentence

• noun

  After the operation he leaned on a wooden cane to climb the stairs.

• verb

  Old school records show that teachers could once cane pupils for talking.

• noun

  The farmer cut a length of sugar cane and pressed it for juice.

• verb

  The magistrate refused to cane the offender, calling the practice cruel.

Where does cane come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word travelled a long way before settling into English. It begins with the Greek 'kanna', meaning a reed or hollow stalk, a word the Greeks themselves probably borrowed from a Semitic source related to the Hebrew 'qaneh', also meaning reed. Latin took it as 'canna', and from there it passed through Old French 'cane' into English in the late 1300s. The earliest English uses kept close to the plant sense, naming the long jointed stems of reeds, bamboo, and later sugar cane, before the meaning extended to a walking stick cut or shaped from such a stalk and then to the rod used for beating. The same reed root quietly survives in 'canal' and 'cannon', both of which describe long hollow channels or tubes.

How the word is built

• cane (from Latin canna, a reed or hollow stalk)