Etymograph

English

tube

Tube comes from Middle French tube ‘pipe’, from Latin tubus ‘tube, pipe’, of obscure ultimate origin.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtubus‘tube, pipe’
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tube‘conduit; pipe’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1879same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtubus‘tube, pipe’
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tube‘conduit; pipe’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1879same form

Earliest quotation: 1879, Richard Jefferies, London: Smith: “But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me…”

The story

From Middle French tube, from Latin tubus (‘tube, pipe’), related to tuba (‘long trumpet; war-trumpet’), of obscure ultimate origin, but possibly connected to tībia (‘shinbone, reed-pipe’); see there.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Linked words

through Latin tubus ‘tube, pipe’

tubular, tubule, 1 more

Today it means

noun Anything that is hollow and cylindrical in shape.

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

Etymograph / Latin tubus / tube

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