Tonne

See also: tonne, tonné, and tønne

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Tonne.

Proper noun

Tonne (plural Tonnes)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Tonne is the 41799^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 520 individuals. Tonne is most common among White (96.35%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Tonne”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

German

Etymology

From Middle High German tunne, from Old High German tunna, from Proto-West Germanic *tunnā (“tun”). A chiefly northern (i.e. Central German) word, later reinforced by Middle Low German tunne, tonne and, in the sense “metric ton”, by French tonne.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔnə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔnə

Noun

Tonne f (genitive Tonne, plural Tonnen, diminutive Tönnchen n)

1. barrel, vat, tun, drum
   1. for collecting waste or surplus, such as a bin, dumpster/skip, water butt
   2. for storing and transporting industrial materials
   3. (dated) for storing and transporting food and drink, e.g. beer, wine, cabbage, herrings

      Synonym: Fass

2. tonne, ton, metric ton
   • 2010, Der Spiegel‎^[1], number 25/2010, page 140:

     Mit seinen 30 Meter Länge und mitunter mehr als 150 Tonnen Gewicht übertrifft der Blauwal jedes andere Tier auf Erden.

     With its length of 30 meters and weight of sometimes more than 150 tons the blue whale surpasses every other animal on Earth.

   1. (slang, Switzerland) thousand francs
      • 2023 June 2, u/FreeSpeechFreePeople, “Irgendwie habe ich das Gefühl ich lebe in einer anderen Welt”, in r/Finanzen‎^[2]:

        Ich fühle mich einfach immer wieder in einer anderen Welt, wenn ich bei Gesprächen bei der Arbeit zuhöre, wo über Neuanschaffungen gesprochen wird. Neue Kaffemaschine? Nur das beste für ne Tonne.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (nautical) buoy

Declension

Declension of Tonne [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Tonne	die	Tonnen
genitive	einer	der	Tonne	der	Tonnen
dative	einer	der	Tonne	den	Tonnen
accusative	eine	die	Tonne	die	Tonnen

Derived terms

• Heringstonne
• Mülltonne
• Regentonne
• tonnenschwer
• für die Tonne

Descendants

• → Russian: то́нна (tónna)
  • → Mongolian: тонн (tonn)

Further reading

• “Tonne” in Duden online
• “Tonne” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache