Art & MusicGreek → English
Canvas
/ˈkænvəs/noun
A heavy woven cloth used for sails, tents, bags and painting.
The Greek roots
κάνναβις
kánnabis
hemp
Literally: “made of hemp”
Follow a root:κάνναβις1 word
The story of the word
Sailcloth was hemp, so the fabric took the plant's name; cannabis and canvas are one word arriving twice, once through spoken French and once straight out of the botanists' Latin. Herodotus reports Scythians throwing hemp seed onto hot stones inside a closed tent and howling with pleasure at the steam, which suggests Greek took both the plant and the word from the steppe. The painter's canvas is late: Italian workshops moved from wood panel to sailcloth in the fifteenth century and the trade name came with the material.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
cannabiscanvass
In a sentence
The canvas had been rolled up in an attic for sixty years.
Rain drummed on the canvas all night.