The Tank Was Named to Fool the Enemy
A tanker carries liquid in bulk. The armoured vehicle called a tank got its name as wartime cover, disguised as a water container.
A tanker is a ship, lorry or aircraft built to carry liquid in bulk. The military tank owes its name to deception: when the first armoured vehicles were built in Britain in 1915, the project was disguised as mobile water tanks for the Middle East, and the cover name stuck permanently to the weapon. The container sense is older and came from India.
- A liquid-carrying vessel. *An oil tanker.*
- A road tanker. *A milk tanker.*
- An air-to-air refuelling aircraft. *A refuelling tanker.*
- Tank — the container. *A water tank.*
- Tank — the armoured vehicle. *A battle tank.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | tanker | A crude tanker. |
| Plural | tankers | Two tankers. |
| Root | tank | A fuel tank. |
| Verb | tank | The share price tanked. |
| Compound | supertanker | A supertanker. |
- The tanker was held offshore for a week.Shipping.
- A tanker delivers water to the village.Road transport.
- Sales tanked after the recall.The informal verb: collapsed.
Where tank came from
- From India — probably Gujarati or Marathi, a reservoir or pond
- Portuguese sailors likely carried it into European use
- English by the 1600s — meaning an artificial pool or cistern
- 1915 — used as a cover name for the secret armoured vehicle project
- The disguise worked — and the name never came off
From *tank*, probably from an Indian language via Portuguese, plus the agent ending -er. The armoured vehicle sense dates from 1915.
Why is a tank called a tank?
Because the British project that built the first ones was disguised as a programme to make mobile water tanks. The cover name became the real one.
Where does the word tank come from originally?
Most likely from an Indian language, meaning a reservoir or pond, reaching English through Portuguese in the 1600s.