flask

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small flat bottle for carrying a drink, often kept in a pocket.

   He kept a flask of coffee in his coat for the cold mornings.

2. 2
   noun

   A glass container with a narrow neck and wide base, used in a laboratory.

   The chemist heated the liquid in a glass flask over the flame.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Flask came into medieval English from medieval Latin flasca and originally denoted a cask or skin for holding liquor. Its later sense of a glass container, recorded from the 17th century, was influenced by Italian fiasco “bottle.”

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…

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