Etymograph

English

flask

Flask comes from Middle English flask ‘case, cask, keg’, from Old English flasce ‘bottle, flask’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ploḱ-skō ‘flat’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ploḱ-skō‘flat’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flaskǭ‘braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug’reconstructed
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*flaskāreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150flasce‘bottle, flask’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flask‘case, cask, keg’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2023same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ploḱ-skō‘flat’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flaskǭ‘braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug’reconstructed
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*flaskāreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150flasce‘bottle, flask’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flask‘case, cask, keg’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2023same form

Earliest quotation: 2023, Ben Jones, Inside Sellafield... by rail: “Over the years, the railway has been the safest…”

The story

The sense “laboratory glassware” is from Italian fiasco, and the sense “container for holding a casting mold” is from Middle French flasque (‘powder flask’), itself from Old Spanish flasco, frasco, both from Late Latin above.

Linked words

through Frankish *flaskā

fiasco, 2 more

Today it means

noun A narrow-necked vessel of metal or glass, used for various purposes; as of sheet metal, to carry gunpowder in; or of wrought iron, to contain quicksilver; or of glass, to heat water in, etc.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ploḱ-skō / flask

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