pail
/peɪl/ noun
Forms pails
- noun A vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle -- used especially for carrying liquids, for example water or milk; a bucket (sometimes with a cover). “The milkmaid carried a pail of milk in each hand.”
- noun (in technical use) A closed (covered) cylindrical shipping container.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English payle (“bucket, pail, milking pail”), of uncertain origin.
Likely from Old English pæġel (“wine vessel, container for liquids, pail; a liquid measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *pagil, from Proto-Indo-European *bak- (“peg, club”), equivalent to peg + -le. Compare West Frisian pegel (“liquid measure, fourth of a litre, half-pint”), German Pegel (“level of liquid, level”), Middle Dutch pegel (“half-pint”), Danish pægl (“half-pint”). Doublet of peil.
Alternatively from Old French paielle (“frying pan, warming pan; a liquid measure”), from Latin patella (“small pan, shallow dish, platter”), diminutive of patina (“broad shallow pan, stewpan”). Perhaps a conflation of both.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A vessel of wood or tin, etc., usually cylindrical and having a bail, --used esp. for carrying liquids, as water or milk, etc.; a bucket. It may, or may not, have a cover. Shak.
Etymology [OE. paile, AS. pægel a wine vessel, a pail, akin to D. & G. pegel a watermark, a gauge rod, a measure of wine, Dan. pægel half a pint.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pail”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details