Etymology

gabion

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Today it means: A cylindrical basket or cage of wicker which was filled with earth or stones and used in fortifications and other engineering work (a precursor to the sandbag). Full definition →

Italian gabbione ← Latin cavea ← Proto-Italic *kawos
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱewh₁-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱowh₁ós?
  3. Proto-Italic*kawos
  4. Latincavus
  5. Latin*caveus
  6. Latincavea
  7. Italiangabbia
  8. Italiangabbione
  9. English todaygabion

Borrowed from Italian gabbione, augmentative of gabbia (“cage”), itself from Latin cavea (whence also English cage, jail and cajole — the two latter via Latin caveola), from Latin cavus (whence also English cave).

Words from the same roots

Latincavea all →

cagegaolcajolecavea

Latincavus all →

cavuscavetto

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.