The Etymology of Colander
Colander reached English around 1450 from Medieval Latin colatorium, a strainer, derived from the verb colare (to strain) and the noun colum (sieve). The Latin colum named the woven sieve used in Roman kitchens to strain wine, broth, and oil. Medieval Latin colatorium was the diminutive form, naming a smaller strainer for everyday cooking. The English form picked up an extra n that the Latin original does not have — a piece of folk reshaping that probably happened by analogy with words like calender, salamander, lavender, or alexander, where the -ander ending was familiar. The earliest Middle English spelling colyndore preserves the awkward transition. The Latin colare also gave English percolate (to strain through), and the same root lurks in portcullis (originally a porte coleice — sliding strainer-gate). Italian preserves the original sense most clearly in colatura, a prized anchovy-strainings sauce from Cetara, and in colino (small strainer). The colander is a quietly ancient kitchen object; archaeological finds of perforated bronze bowls go back to the Bronze Age.