cask C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary US /kæsk/ UK /kɑːsk/ See IPA manual Homophones casque /kæsk/ Meanings 1 noun a barrel-shaped wooden container for liquids The wine aged for years in an oak cask. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a barrel-shaped wooden... barrelkegtunhogsheadbuttfirkinvat Word family Forms caskful Derived forms casket Related forms casket Etymology AI details From Middle French casque or Spanish casco ('helmet, cask, skull'), of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *quassicare ('to break'). casco Spanish View etymology graph -> Topics General Vocabulary External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # cask **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /kæsk/ **IPA (UK):** /kɑːsk/ ## Meanings 1. a barrel-shaped wooden container for liquids ## Examples - The wine aged for years in an oak cask. ## Synonyms - barrel - keg - tun - hogshead - butt - firkin - vat ## Derived Forms - casket ## Related Forms - casket ## Roots and Affixes - Root: casco ## Etymology From Middle French casque or Spanish casco ('helmet, cask, skull'), of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *quassicare ('to break'). ## AI Etymology Cask comes from Middle French casque or Spanish casco ('helmet, cask, skull'), of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *quassicare ('to break'). The historical trail runs through casco in Spanish. The history must be left partly open, preserving the uncertainty rather than forcing a single unsupported ancestry. Used as a noun, cask now means "a barrel-shaped wooden container for liquids", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as casket and related forms such as casket. That uncertainty is part of the entry: the safest account is the attested form and the limited comparisons preserved with it. ## Topics - General Vocabulary markdown