Cannery

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A factory where fruit, vegetables, fish or meat are processed and sealed in tins ; a building or plant devoted to the preserving of food in airtight containers
2. A processing plant that seals foodstuffs into cans for storage ; the facility itself, where produce and meat are packed into sealed metal containers
3. An industrial works in which food is prepared and sealed into tins for long-term keeping ; the premises where such preserving takes place on a commercial scale

Etymology: Cannery is about as plain as English compounds get: it is the English verb "can," meaning to preserve food in sealed tins, with the suffix "-ery" added to name a place where that work happens. The verb itself is old. "Can" in the sense of "to know how to do something" comes from Old English "cunnan," and the preserving sense is a later extension built on the noun "can," a metal container. The suffix does most of the historical work. "-ery" descends from Old French "-erie," which in turn came from Latin "-aria" and "-arius," forms used to name places, trades and collections of things. English took the pattern up in Middle English as "-erie," and it spread to hundreds of words such as bakery, brewery and laundry. Cannery follows that model directly, so the word tells you exactly what it is: a factory or workshop for canning.

Synonyms: canning factory, canning plant, packing plant