Everyday LifeGreek → English
Siphon
/ˈsaɪfən/noun
A tube that carries liquid up over a rim and down to a lower level without a pump.
The Greek roots
σίφων
síphōn
pipe, tube
Literally: “tube”
Follow a root:σίφων1 word
The story of the word
The Greek word already meant the device. Hellenistic engineers wrote about siphons, and Byzantine warships carried a σίφων on the prow, the pump that threw Greek fire at enemy hulls. English took it in the 15th century, and zoologists later handed the name to the tube a squid uses to jet backwards through water.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
Same family
siphonophoresiphonage
In a sentence
He siphoned the last of the petrol out of the mower with a length of hose.