A type of coarse canvas fabric or ground cloth, especially one used in art or construction.
From Italian 'caneva' or Latin 'canapeus,' related to 'cannabis' (hemp plant). The word traveled through Italian and other Romance languages before entering English, referring to fabrics made from plant fibers.
This word is a linguistic cousin of 'cannabis'—both come from the same root describing plant fibers! Hemp and similar plants were essential for making canvases that artists painted on for centuries.
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