A small can or container, especially a small drinking cup or metal vessel used in cooking or service.
From Middle Dutch 'kannekin,' a diminutive of 'kanne' (a can or jug). The word traveled through Dutch and into English in the 16th-17th centuries, originally referring to small metal drinking vessels.
Cannequin is what you'd call a tiny metal cup in old taverns—it's the ancestor of modern camping cups and one of those words that shows how 'small version of something' is the same idea in multiple languages!
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