tun

Meaning

Noun

1. A large cask; an oblong vessel bulging in the middle, like a pipe or puncheon, and girt with hoops; a wine cask. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)
2. A fermenting vat.
3. A traditional unit of liquid measure equal to 252 wine gallons or 2 pipes.
4. Synonym of long ton: a unit of mass equal to 2240 pounds, 20 hundredweights of 112 pounds avoirdupois each.
5. Synonym of ton: any extremely or excessively large amount.
6. Synonym of drunkard: a person who drinks excessively.
7. Any shell belonging to Tonna and allied genera.
8. The cryptobiotic state of a tardigrade, when its metabolism is temporarily suspended.

Verb

To put into tuns, or casks.

Synonyms

gill

large barrel

large cask

cask shell

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tʌn/

Etymology

From Middle English tunne, tonne (“cask, barrel”), from Old English tunne (“tun, cask, barrel”), from Proto-Germanic *tunnǭ, *tunnō (“tun, barrel, cask”), from Latin tunna, probably of Gaulish origin.
Cognate with North Frisian tenn (“tun, barrel, cask”), Dutch ton (“tun, barrel, cask”), German Tonne (“tun, barrel, drum”), Danish tønde (“barrel”), Swedish tunna (“barrel, cask, tun”), Icelandic tunna (“barrel”). Compare also Old French tonne, French tonneau (“ton, barrel”), Medieval Latin tunna (“cask”), Middle Irish tunna (“cask”), Welsh tynell (“tun, barrel”). It is uncertain whether the Germanic or the Celtic forms are the original.