The word "tank" in different languages and their etymologies
More tanks for wa(te)r

Green marks the languages where the word tank (or similar) is used. The word originated from Portugues “tanque”. The word was taken from some language in India. Maybe Gujarati ટાંકી (ṭā̃kī) but it is also possible from Marathi टाकी (ṭākī). But the word tank in the sense of an armored vehicle is quite modern, from the World War I.

Many languages have local terms usually translatable as “combat car”, “fight car” or “armed car”. In Icelandic and Polish there is only one local term, but the meaning is related to the “crawling” movement of tanks.

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