Keg
nounA small barrel, especially one used to store and dispense beer.
How to spell keg
3 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce keg
What does keg mean?
- nounA small barrel, especially one used to store and dispense beer.
Keg in a sentence
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The pub ordered an extra keg of lager for the match.
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They tapped a fresh keg at the start of the party.
Where does keg come from?
Language of origin: Old Norse
The word keg comes from Old Norse kaggi, meaning a small cask or barrel, brought into English contact during the Scandinavian settlement of Britain. It first appears in English in the 1400s, originally spelled with a 'c' as 'cag' before the modern 'keg' form settled into place. The shift in spelling reflects the hard 'g' sound at the end of the word, which writers eventually standardised. Today a keg still means much what it did then: a sturdy container, now most strongly associated with beer. The compactness of the word, just three letters, makes it an easy spelling, and its Norse origin places it among the many everyday vessel and container words English absorbed from its northern neighbours.
How the word is built
- keg (single root, no affixes)
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