REH Word of the Week: cannikins
Monday, November 23, 2009
posted by Barbara Barrett
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cannikins
noun
1. a small can or drinking vessel
[origin: 1570; probably from obsolete Dutch kanneken, from Middle Dutch canneken,
diminuitive of canne can; akin to Old English canne can]
HOWARD’S USAGE:
“Let it rest with the ages’ mysteries,
And but recall the day
I was want to go where the cannikins clinked,
Not caring who should pay.”Cities brooding beneath the seas
Yield their chalcedon and gold;
Ruthless hands the treasures seize,
Rending the Ages’ mysteries,
But who is Grandpa Theobold?
[from “Who is Grandpa Theobold?”; to read the complete poem, see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 285 and Echoes from an Iron Harp, p. 100]
