caisson

See also: Caisson

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French caisson, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Italian cassone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪs(ə)n/
• IPA^(key): [ˈkeɪsɑn], [ˈkeɪsn̩]

Noun

caisson (plural caissons)

1. (engineering) An enclosure from which water can be expelled, in order to give access to underwater areas for engineering works etc.
   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, p. 213:

     Caissons were enclosed dry chambers built on river beds to facilitate the construction of bridge piers.

2. The gate across the entrance to a dry dock.
3. (nautical) A floating tank that can be submerged, attached to an underwater object and then pumped out to lift the object by buoyancy; a camel.
4. (military) A two-wheeled, horse-drawn military vehicle used to carry ammunition (and a coffin at funerals).
   • 1908, Edmund Louis Gruber, “The Caissons Go Rolling Along”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Over hill, over dale / As we hit the dusty trail, / And those caissons go rolling along.

5. (military) A large box to hold ammunition.
6. (military) A chest filled with explosive materials, used like a mine.
7. (architecture) A coffer.

Derived terms

• caisson disease

Translations

enclosure from which water can be expelled

• Armenian: սուզարկղ (hy) (suzarkġ)
• Bulgarian: кесон m (keson)
• Finnish: kasuuni
• German: Senkkasten m, Caisson m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: cassone (it) m, tura (it) f
• Russian: кессон (ru) (kesson)
• Swedish: kassun (sv) c

gate across the entrance to a dry dock

• Finnish: sulkuportti
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: батопорт (ru) (batoport), плавучий затво́р (plavučij zatvór)

floating tank that can be submerged

• Bulgarian: парашут (bg) m (parašut)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: понтон (ru) (ponton)

two-wheeled horse-drawn military vehicle

• Irish: vaigín armlóin m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

large box of ammunition

• Bulgarian: ракла (bg) f (rakla)
• Russian: зарядный я́щик (ru) (zarjadnyj jáščik)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: ammunitionskista

architecture: coffer — see coffer

Anagrams

• Caisons, assicon, casinos, cassino, cassoni

---

French

Etymology

From Old Occitan caisson, from caissa; synchronically analysable as caisse +‎ -on.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛ.sɔ̃/ ~ /ke.sɔ̃/

Noun

caisson m (plural caissons)

1. box

See also

• boîte f

Further reading

• “caisson”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• casinos, casions