The Etymology of Canteen
Canteen has done remarkable work for a word that began life as a corner. Latin canthus meant the corner of the eye or the rim of a wheel; medieval Italian canto narrowed it to a corner of a room or building; cantina was the corner of the cellar set aside for storing wine, and then by extension the cellar itself. French borrowed cantine in the 18th century for the small mobile shop where camp followers (sutlers) sold wine and provisions to soldiers in the field, and English picked the word up in 1744 with that military meaning. From there it branched: in the 19th century soldiers' canteens included the small water flask each man carried; by the late 19th century it had spread to the workplace, where factories and offices set up subsidised dining rooms for their workers and called them canteens. British school dinners are still served in a canteen; American GIs filled their canteens at the well. Same word, same Italian corner.