Canteen: A Works Dining Room, and a Soldier's Water Bottle
A canteen is a dining area in a workplace or school. The same word names a soldier's water flask and a boxed set of cutlery.
A canteen feeds people where they already are: at work, at school, on a base. The three senses look unconnected until you notice the theme — a canteen is always about provisions carried to where they are needed.
- A dining room at a workplace or school. *Lunch in the staff canteen.*
- A soldier's water bottle. *He refilled his canteen at the stream.*
- A boxed set of cutlery. *A canteen of silver.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | canteen | The school canteen. |
| Plural | canteens | Two canteens of water. |
| Related | cafeteria | A hospital cafeteria. |
| Related | mess | The officers' mess. |
| Related | refectory | A monastery refectory. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The canteen serves hot food until two.The workplace sense, standard in British English.
- Fill your canteen before the march.Military and hiking use, chiefly American.
- They were given a canteen of cutlery as a wedding present.The fitted box, not the contents alone.
Places that feed a group
- Canteen — workplace or school, usually subsidised
- Cafeteria — self-service, and the usual American term
- Mess — military dining, organised by rank
- Refectory — a dining hall in a monastery or college
- Buttery — a college food counter, chiefly at Oxford and Cambridge
From French *cantine*, from Italian *cantina*, a cellar or wine store. The military sense came first in English — a place selling provisions to troops — and both the flask and the workplace dining room grew out of it.
Canteen or cafeteria?
Canteen is British and implies an employer or school runs it. Cafeteria is American and describes the self-service format.
Why is a cutlery box called a canteen?
From the older sense of a fitted case for carrying supplies. The container gave its name to the set inside.