# cane
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English cane, canne, from Old French cane (“sugar cane”), from Latin canna (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canna and kaneh. Related to channel and canal.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /keɪn/
* Audio (US); [kʰẽːn]:(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪn
* Homophone: Cain

### Noun

cane (countable and uncountable, plural canes)
* A plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof
** (uncountable) The slender, flexible main stem of a plant such as bamboo, including many species in the grass family Gramineae
    Synonyms: stem, stalk, (of a tree) trunk
** (uncountable) The plant itself, including many species in the grass family Gramineae; a reed
    Synonym: reed
** (uncountable) Sugar cane
    Synonym: molasses cane
*** 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.
** (US, Southern) Maize or, rarely, sorghum, when such plants are processed to make molasses (treacle) or sugar
* The stem of such a plant adapted for use as a tool
** (countable) A short rod or stick, traditionally of wood or bamboo, used for corporal punishment.
    Synonyms: rod, switch
*** 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 123:He stalked behind her simple narrative, a kill-joy parent, hasty, intolerant, keeping a special cane to enforce the authority of his sadistic God[.]
** (with "the") Corporal punishment by beating with a cane.
    Synonyms: a caning, six of the best, whipping, cuts
    The teacher gave his student the cane for throwing paper.
** A lance or dart made of cane
*** 1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada:Judgelike thou sitt'st, to praise or to arraign / The flying skirmish of the darted cane.
* A rod-shaped tool or device, resembling the stem of the plant.
** (countable) A strong short staff used for support or decoration during walking; a walking stick
    Synonyms: staff, walking stick
    After breaking his leg, he needed a cane to walk.
*** 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Ayrsham Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.
*** 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.
** (countable, glassblowing) A length of colored and/or patterned glass rod, used in the specific glassblowing technique called caneworking
** (countable) A long rod often collapsible and commonly white (for visibility to other persons), used by vision impaired persons for guidance in determining their course and for probing for obstacles in their path
    Synonyms: blind man's cane, white cane
* (uncountable) Split rattan, as used in wickerwork and basketry.
** 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.
* A local European measure of length; the canna.

#### Derived terms

* bamboo cane
* blind man's cane
* candy cane
* cane apple (Arbutus unedo)
* cane ash (Fraxinus americana)
* caneball
* cane beardgrass (Bothriochloa barbinodis)
* cane beetle
* cane bluestem (Bothriochloa barbinodis)
* caneboard
* cane borer (Oberea bimaculata)
* canebrake
* cane brake
* cane carter
* cane cutter
* canecutter
* cane field, canefield
* canefruit
* cane fu
* cane gall
* canegrass
* cane grass (esp. Glyceria ramigera)
* canegrub
* cane grub (esp. Dermolepida albohirtum)
* cane juice
* cane killer (Melasma melampyroides)
* cane knife
* caneland
* caneless
* canelike, cane-like
* caneology
* cane piece
* caner
* cane rat (Thryonomys spp.)
* cane rust
* cane sugar
* cane syrup
* cane toad (Rhinella marina)
* cane train
* caneware
* canework
* caneworking
* canite
* cany
* dumbcane
* dumb cane (Dieffenbachia seguine)
* floricane
* giant cane, great cane (Arundinaria gigantea)
* hill cane (Arundinaria appalachiana)
* large cane (Arundinaria gigantea)
* lawyer cane (Calamus australis)
* macaroni cane
* maiden cane (Panicum hemitomon)
* Malacca cane (Calamus scipionum)
* plant-cane
* primocane
* probing cane
* rattan cane (Calamus spp.)
* recane
* ribbon cane
* rivercane
* river cane (Arundinaria gigantea)
* Santa's cane
* small cane (Arundinaria tecta)
* snake cane (Kunthia montana)
* sugar-cane
* sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum)
* sweet cane
* switch cane (Arundinaria tecta, Arundinaria gigantea)
* sword cane
* walking cane
* white cane

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

cane (third-person singular simple present canes, present participle caning, simple past and past participle caned)
* To strike or beat with a cane or similar implement.
* (transitive) To make or furnish with cane or rattan.
    to cane chairs
** 2018 March 14, Bryan MacKay, Paddle Maryland: A Guide to Rivers, Creeks, and Water Trails, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 38:In colonial days, threesquare was used to cane chair seats.
* (UK, New Zealand, slang) To destroy; to comprehensively defeat.
    Mudchester Rovers were caned 10-0.
* (UK, New Zealand, slang) To do something well, in a competent fashion.
* (UK, slang) To go very fast.
    Synonym: cane it
* (UK, Australia, slang, intransitive) To produce extreme pain.
    Don’t hit me with that. It really canes!
    Mate, my legs cane!

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* -ance, Caen, Cena, Nace, acne, ance

## Corsican
### Etymology

From Latin canis, canem (“dog”). Cognates with Italian cane, French chien, Sicilian cani.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkanɛ/

### Noun

cane m (plural cani, feminine cagna)
* (Cismontane dialects) dog (Canis familiaris)

#### Synonyms

* (Ultramontane dialects) ghjacaru

#### References

* “cane, cani” in INFCOR: Banca di dati di a lingua corsa

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle French cane (“duck, female duck”, literally “loater, little boat”), from Old French cane (“boat, ship; waterbird”), from Middle Low German kane (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *kaną (“boat, vessel”). See Proto-Germanic *kanô (“boat, vessel”). Cognate with Norwegian kane (“swan-shaped vessel”), Dutch kaan (“boat”), German Kahn (“boat”), Old Norse kæna (“little boat”), and possibly Old Norse knǫrr (“ship”) (whence also Late Latin canardus (“ship”), from Germanic; and Old English cnearr (“merchant ship”)). Related to French canot (“little boat”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kan/
* Audio:(file)
* Homophone: Cannes

### Noun

cane f (plural canes)
* duck (female duck)

#### Related terms

* canard

### Further reading

* “cane”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* Caen

## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈka.ne/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ane
* Hyphenation: cà‧ne

### Etymology 1

From the Latin canis, canem (“dog”). Cognate with Sicilian cani.

#### Noun

cane m (plural cani, feminine cagna, diminutive canìno m or canìna f or cagnétto m or cagnétta f or cagnettìno m or cagnettìna f, augmentative cagnóne, pejorative cagnàccio, endearing cagnolìno)
* dog, male dog
    Hypernym: canide
* (firearms) hammer

##### Derived terms

* accanare
* accanire
* alla cazzo di cane
* cagnara
* cagnesco
* cagnetto
* cagnolino
* cagnolo
* canaio
* cane che abbaia non morde
* cane d'acqua
* cane da caccia
* cane da ferma
* cane da penna
* cane da riporto
* cane da slitta
* cane lupo
* cane poliziotto
* canea
* canile
* pescecane

##### Related terms

* canaglia
* canicola
* canide
* canino

#### Adjective

cane (invariable)
* freezing, biting (of cold)
    Oggi fa un freddo cane! ― Today is freezing cold!
* terrible, dreadful, awful (of pain)

#### See also

* abbaiare
* bau

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Noun

cane f
* plural of cana

#### Adjective

cane
* feminine plural of cano

### Anagrams

* acne, cena

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈka.ne/, [ˈkänɛ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈka.ne/, [ˈkäːne]

### Verb

cane
* second-person singular present active imperative of canō

### Noun

cane
* ablative singular of canis

### References

* "cane", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* “cane”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

From Old French cane, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na).

#### Alternative forms

* canne, kane, kanne

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkaːn(ə)/

#### Noun

cane (plural canes)
* bamboo, sugar cane, flax, or a similar simple-stemmed plant
* the stem or stalk of such a plant, often used to write with
* (rare) a metal implement used for surgery
* (rare) a bodily passage or tube, such as the trachea

##### Derived terms

* canel

##### Descendants

* English: cane
* Scots: cane

##### References

* “cāne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-01.

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

cane
* Alternative form of canne

## Old French
### Etymology

From Latin canna (“reed, cane”).

### Noun

cane oblique singular, f (oblique plural canes, nominative singular cane, nominative plural canes)
* tube

#### Descendants

* French: canne
* Norman: tchêne (Jersey), kyeen (Sark)
* → Middle English: cane, canne, kane, kanne
** English: cane
** Scots: cane

## Sardinian
### Alternative forms

* cani (Campidanese)

### Etymology

From Latin canis, canem (“dog”). Cognate with Italian cane.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkane/

### Noun

cane m or f (plural canes)
* (Logudorese, Nuorese) dog
    Synonym: perru

## Venetan
### Noun

cane
* plural of cana