Etymology Dictionary

TANKARD,  a large vessel for holding drink.  (F.,—L.,—Gk.?)   M.E. tankard, used to translate Lat. amphora, Wright's Voc. i. 178, l. 18; and in Prompt. Parv.—O.F. tanquard, 'a tankard, in Rabelais;' Cot.   Cf. O. Du. tanckaert, 'a wodden [wooden] tankard,' Hexham; a word prob. borrowed from the O.F.   β. The suffix -ard is common in O.F., shewing that the word was really, at some time, French; the Irish tancard must have been borrowed from E., and does not help us.   γ. Origin unknown; the best suggestion is that in Mahn, that it may have been coined, by metathesis, out of Lat. cantharus, a tankard, large pot; which is from Gk. κάνθαρος, the same.   ¶ The suggestion in E. Müller, that it is connected with tank, is completely disproved by chronology; the word tankard is older than tank, in English at least, by two centuries and more; besides which, tank is a corrupt form of stank, as shewn.