basket

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a container that is usually woven and has handles
  2. noun the quantity contained in a basket
  3. noun horizontal circular metal hoop supporting a net through which players try to throw the basketball

Etymology

From Middle English basket, from Anglo-Norman baschet, basket, bascat, of obscure origin. Displaced native Old English mand. One theory is that it derives from Late Latin bascauda (“kettle, table-vessel”), from Proto-Brythonic (in Breton baskodenn), from Proto-Celtic *baskis (“bundle, load”), from purported Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“bundle”), but this is now widely viewed as a substrate word for phonetic reasons. Related to Latin fascis (“bundle, package, load”) (whence English fasces), Albanian bokshe (“bundle”), Breton bac'h (“bundle, load”), Ancient Greek φάκελος (phákelos) and βάσκιοι (báskioi) (“bundle (of sticks)”); see also faggot (“(originally) bundle of sticks”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

handbasket

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