Etymology: In sense 1, perhaps immediately from an Indian vernacular: compare Gujarati tānkh an underground reservoir for water (Shakespear), ṭānki a reservoir of water, a small well (Wilson); Marathi ṭānken, tāken, a reservoir of water, a tank (Wilson); tānkā a cistern of stone inside a house, etc., a reservoir for rainwater: words which some would connect with Sanskrit taḍāga pond, lake, pool; others think that they are all derived < Portuguese tanque pond = Spanish estanque, French étang < Latin stagnum pond, pool, with which at least the Indian words were identified by the Portuguese, who even in the Roteiro de Vasco da Gama and through the 16th cent. applied tanque to the Indian reservoirs, called also in French estang (Pyrard de Laval c1610). The 17th cent. English forms tanque and tanke appear to be taken from the Portuguese; tanck, tank, on the other hand, with Italian tancho (Varthema 1510), may have been from Gujarati tānkh. As to the English use in senses 1b, 2, it is not clear whether this came from Anglo-Indian usage, or was immediately related to Portuguese tanque. It could scarcely arise out of earlier English or Scots stank ‘pond, fish-pond, stagnant pool, ditch’, since this never in sense approached that of tank.

Etymology: Middle English tanke; origin obscure.

Etymology: Shortened < copped tank, variant of copintank n.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps a variant of tang n.¹

Etymology: Compare tanga n.¹

Etymology: Echoic.

Etymology: Specific use of tank n.¹, adopted as a designation for tracked armoured fighting vehicles with allusion to the resemblance of the vehicle's box-like metal hull to a large cistern or reservoir for liquids, in order to obscure the purpose of these machines during their development and manufacture.The first tanks used by the British military were built in Lincoln by William Foster and Co. Ltd., an agricultural machinery manufacturer, to designs by the company's chairman William Ashbee Tritton (1875–1946) and mechanical engineer Lieutenant (later Major) Walter Gordon Wilson (1874–1957), according to a contract with the Admiralty Landships Committee issued in July 1915. The first prototype to be demonstrated was nicknamed Little Willie (tested in Sept. 1915: see Little Willie n. 2), while the first to go into production (from Jan. 1916) was a larger model known as Big Willie and as Mother : compare quot. 1916⁵ at sense 1. As a secrecy measure, the hull of the former machine was constructed separately from the chassis and listed in company paperwork as a ‘water carrier’ (i.e. a water tank), a designation that was subsequently proposed for the vehicle. Compare:1915 E. H. T. d'Eyncourt Let. 4 Nov. (P.R.O.: ADM 116/339) I..propose to refer to the vessel [sc. Land Cruiser] as a ‘Water Carrier’ as a means of disguise.The decision to adopt tank as the official code name for this kind of vehicle was made in late December 1915 (compare quot. 1916¹ at sense 1).

Etymology: Probably abbreviation of tankard n.

Etymology: Originally (in sense 1) imitative of the sound of an object being struck; compare tonk v. 1. In senses 2 and 3 perhaps either < tank n.⁷ or after that word (compare tank v.³), although with sense 3 compare tonk v. 2. With the semantic development compare also thresh v., beat v.¹

Etymology: < tank n.¹

Etymology: < tank n.⁷