flask

The story

1. Middle French · borrowed fromflasque“powder flask”
2. Italian · borrowed fromfiasco
3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pleḱ-“to weave”
4. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ploḱ-skō“flat”
5. Proto-Germanic · derived from*flaskǭ“braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug”
6. Frankish · derived from*flaskā
7. Medieval Latin · derived fromflascō“bottle”
8. Old English · inherited fromflasce
9. Middle English · inherited fromflask
10. English todayflask

From Middle English flask, flaske (“case, cask, keg”), from Old English flasce, flaxe (“bottle, flask”) and Medieval Latin flascō (“bottle”); from Frankish *flaskā; both from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ (“braid-covered bottle, wicker-enclosed jug”), from Proto-Indo-European *ploḱ-skō (“flat”), or from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to weave”). Doublet of fiasco, flacon, and flagon. Related to Dutch fles; also German Low German Flaske, Fless, German Flasche, Danish flaske; also Lithuanian plókščias, Czech ploský, Albanian flashkët. 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.

Words from the same roots