▪ I. ‖ canna, n.1
(ˈkænə)
[L. canna reed, cane, taken in Bot. as the name of an entirely different genus.]
A genus of endogenous plants (family Marantaceæ), with brightly coloured flowers, yellow, red, or orange, and ornamental foliage, natives of warm climates, but cultivated in Britain.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 197 Sow on the Hot-bed..Canna Indica..and the like rare and exotic Plants. 1767 J. Abercrombie Ev. Man own Gard. 742/2 Canna, Indian shot, or canacorus. 1883 Pall Mall G. 17 Sept. 4/1 Mark also the crescent-shaped bed of Cannas—the Indian shot, as it is sometimes called, from the seed being so hard that the Indians used it as a missile. |
▪ II. ‖ canna, n.2
See cane n.1 7.
| 1600 Pory Leo's Africa ii. 61 A Canna (a measure proper to this region containing two elles) of course cloth is solde for halfe a peece of gold. |
▪ III. canna
(in 16th c. cannocht), Sc. form of cannot: see can v.
| 1721 Ramsay Poems (1877) II. 267 He disna live that canna link The glass about. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 230, I canna read Greek—except in a Latin translation done into English. |
▪ IV. canna
var. of cannach.