vessel

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A ship or large boat.

   A fishing vessel was spotted off the coast.

2. 2
   noun

   A container used for holding liquids.

   They poured the wine into a silver vessel.

3. 3
   noun

   A tube that carries fluid such as blood in the body or sap in a plant.

   Tiny blood vessels carry oxygen to the muscles.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Vessel came into Middle English through French from Latin vascellum, “small vase” or “ship,” a diminutive of vas, “vessel.” English inherited both the container and ship senses, linked by the idea of a container. The anatomical sense, as in blood vessel, arose in late Middle English.

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāss Late Latin vās Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Italic *-elom Late Latin -ulum Late Latin -culum Late Latin vāsculum Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Late Latin -lus Late Latin vāscellum Old French vaisselbor. Middle English vessel English vessel Inherited from Middle English vessel, vessell (“small container”); from Old French vaissel (compare modern French vaisseau and Catalan vaixell), from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of vāsculum, diminutive of vās (“vase, vessel”).

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