can

See also: Appendix:Variations of "can"

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English can, first and third person singular of connen, cunnen (“to be able, know how”), from Old English can(n), first and third person singular of cunnan (“to know how”), from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (whence know). Compare West Frisian kinne, Dutch kunnen, Low German könen, German können, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål kunne, Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk kunna. More at canny, cunning.

Pronunciation

Verb

can (third-person singular simple present can, present participle -, simple past could, past participle (obsolete except in adjectival use) couth)

  1. (modal auxiliary verb, defective) To know how to; to be able to.
    She can speak English, French, and German.   I can play football.   Can you remember your fifth birthday?
    • Reginald Pecock (15th c.)
      Clerks which can write books.
    • 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:
      Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
  2. (modal auxiliary verb, defective, informal) May; to be permitted or enabled to.
    You can go outside and play when you're finished with your homework.   Can I use your pen?
  3. (modal auxiliary verb, defective) To be possible, usually with be.
    Can it be Friday already?
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To know.
Usage notes
  • For missing forms, substitute inflected forms of be able to, as:
    • I might be able to go.
    • I was able to go yesterday.
    • I have been able to go, since I was seven.
    • I had been able to go before.
    • I will be able to go tomorrow.
  • The word could also suffices in many tenses. “I would be able to go” is equivalent to “I could go”, and “I was unable to go” can be rendered “I could not go”. (Unless there is a clear indication otherwise, “could verb” means “would be able to verb”, but “could not verb” means “was/were unable to verb”.)
  • The present tense negative can not is usually contracted to cannot (more formal) or can’t (less formal).
  • The use of can in asking permission sometimes is criticized as being impolite or incorrect by those who favour the more formal alternative “may I...?”.
  • Can is sometimes used rhetorically to issue a command, placing the command in the form of a request. For instance, “Can you hand me that pen?” as a polite substitution for “Hand me that pen.”
  • Some US dialects that glottalize the final /t/ in can’t (/kæn(ʔ)/), in order to differentiate can’t from can, pronounce can as /kɛn/ even when stressed.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also
  • Appendix:English modal verbs
  • Appendix:English tag questions

Etymology 2

From Middle English canne, from Old English canne (“glass, container, cup, can”), from Proto-Germanic *kannǭ (“can, tankard, mug, cup”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gan-, *gandʰ- (“a vessel”). Cognate with Scots can (“can”), West Frisian kanne (“a jug, pitcher”), Dutch kan (“pot, mug”), German Kanne (“can, tankard, mug”), Danish kande (“can, mug, a measure”), Swedish kanna (“can, tankard, mug”), Icelandic kanna (“a can”).

Pronunciation

Noun

a can (3)

can (plural cans)

  1. A more or less cylindrical vessel for liquids, usually of steel or aluminium, but sometimes of plastic, and with a carrying handle over the top.
  2. A container used to carry and dispense water for plants (a watering can).
  3. A tin-plate canister, often cylindrical, for preserved foods such as fruit, meat, or fish.
  4. (archaic) A chamber pot, now (US, slang) a toilet or lavatory.
    Shit or get off the can.
    Bob's in the can. You can wait a few minutes or just leave it with me.
  5. (US, slang) Buttocks.
  6. (slang) Jail or prison.
    Bob's in the can. He won't be back for a few years.
  7. (slang, plural) Headphones.
  8. (archaic) A drinking cup.
    • Shakespeare, Twelfth Night II.iii
      SIR ANDREW: Nay, my troth, I know not: but I know, to be up late is to be up late.
      SIR TOBY: A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can.
    • Tennyson
      Fill the cup and fill the can, / Have a rouse before the morn.
  9. (nautical) A cube-shaped buoy or marker used to denote a port-side lateral mark
Synonyms
  • (toilet): See Thesaurus:chamber pot and Thesaurus:toilet
  • (place with a toilet): See Thesaurus:bathroom
  • (cylindrical metal container): tin (British & Australian at least)
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

can (third-person singular simple present cans, present participle canning, simple past and past participle canned)

  1. To preserve, by heating and sealing in a can or jar.
    They spent August canning fruit and vegetables.
  2. to discard, scrap or terminate (an idea, project, etc.).
    He canned the whole project because he thought it would fail.
  3. To shut up.
    Can your gob.
  4. (US, euphemistic) To fire or dismiss an employee.
    The boss canned him for speaking out.
Translations

Anagrams

Afar

Noun

can

  1. milk

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin canis, canem.

Noun

can m (plural canes)

  1. dog (animal)

Synonyms

Azerbaijani

Other scripts
Cyrillic ҹан
Roman can
Perso-Arabic جان‎

Etymology

From Persian جان‎ (jân).

Noun

can (definite accusative canı, plural canlar)

  1. soul, spirit
  2. being, creature, life
  3. body
  4. force, vigour

Declension

Declension of can
singular plural
nominative can canlar
definite accusative canı canları
dative cana canlara
locative canda canlarda
ablative candan canlardan
definite genitive canın canların

Catalan

Pronunciation

Contraction

can

  1. Contraction of ca en.

Further reading

Classical Nahuatl

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kaːn/

Adverb

cān

  1. where

Derived terms

Galician

Etymology 1

From Old Portuguese can, from Latin canis, canem.

Noun

can m (plural cans)

  1. dog

Etymology 2

Noun

can m (plural cans)

  1. trigger

Interlingua

Noun

can (plural canes)

  1. dog
  2. cock, hammer (of a firearm)

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish canaid, from Proto-Celtic *kaneti (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n-. Compare Welsh canu, Latin canō, Ancient Greek καναχέω (kanakhéō), Persian خواندن‎ (xândan).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kanˠ/

Verb

can (present analytic canann, future analytic canfaidh, verbal noun canadh, past participle canta)

  1. to sing

Conjugation

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
can chan gcan
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Istriot

Etymology

From Latin canis.

Noun

can m

  1. dog

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kan/, [kän̺]

Etymology 1

From Turkic.

Alternative forms

Noun

can m (invariable)

  1. khan

Etymology 2

See etymology on the main entry.

Noun

can m (plural cani)

  1. (poetic, literary) Apocopic form of cane; dog

Kurdish

Etymology

Related to Persian جان‎ (jân).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒɑːn/

Noun

can ?

  1. soul

Ligurian

Etymology

From Latin canis, canem.

Noun

can m (plural chen)

  1. dog

Mandarin

Romanization

can

  1. Nonstandard spelling of cān.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of cán.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of cǎn.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of càn.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle Dutch

Verb

can

  1. first-person and third-person singular present indicative of connen

Occitan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin canis, canem.

Noun

can m (plural cans)

  1. dog, hound

Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin quandō.

Conjunction

can

  1. when

Adverb

can

  1. (interrogative) when

Descendants

Old Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin canis (“dog”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkã/

Noun

can m

  1. dog

Descendants

Scots

Verb

can

  1. can
  2. be able to
    He shuid can dae that. ― He should be able to do that.

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish canaid (“to sing”), from Proto-Celtic *kaneti (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n-. Compare Welsh canu, Latin canō, Ancient Greek καναχέω (kanakhéō), Persian خواندن‎ (xândan).

Verb

can (past chan, future canaidh, verbal noun cantainn, past participle cante)

  1. to say

References

  • Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin canis, canem (compare Aromanian cãne, Catalan ca, French chien, Italian cane, Portuguese cão), from Proto-Italic *kō (accusative *kwanem), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (accusative *ḱwónm̥).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kan/
  • Rhymes: -an

Noun

can m (plural canes)

  1. dog, hound

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowing from Persian جان‎ (jân, “soul, vital spirit, life”). Cognate with English quick.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dʒan/

Noun

can (definite accusative canı, plural canlar)

  1. soul, life, being
  2. sweetheart

Declension

Inflection
Nominative can
Definite accusative canı
Singular Plural
Nominative can canlar
Definite accusative canı canları
Dative cana canlara
Locative canda canlarda
Ablative candan canlardan
Genitive canın canların
Possessive forms
Singular Plural
1st singular canım canlarım
2nd singular canın canların
3rd singular canı canları
1st plural canımız canlarımız
2nd plural canınız canlarınız
3rd plural canları canları

See also

Venetian

Etymology

From Latin canis, canem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kaŋ/

Noun

can m (plural cani)

  1. dog

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from 肝.

Noun

can

  1. (traditional Vietnamese medicine) liver
    Synonym: gan

Etymology 2

Sino-Vietnamese word from 干.

Noun

can

  1. Short for Thiên Can (“celestial stem”).

Verb

can

  1. to concern; to apply to
  2. to be involved (in); to be implicated (in)
  3. to dissuade (something from doing something); to intervene

Etymology 3

Sino-Vietnamese word from 竿.

Noun

(classifier cây, cái) can

  1. walking stick

Etymology 4

Verb

can

  1. to join; to unite; to sew together

Etymology 5

From French calque.

Verb

can

  1. to trace (through translucent paper), to do tracing
Derived terms

Volapük

Noun

can (plural cans)

  1. sales commodity, merchandise, wares

Declension

Welsh

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)

Adjective

can

  1. bleached, white
  2. hundred

Noun

can m (plural caniau)

  1. a can
  2. flour

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radicalsoftnasalaspirate
can gan nghan chan
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

See also

References

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