Other forms: cisterns
A cistern is the tank that holds the water for flushing. The cistern refilled, a leaking cistern, inside the cistern.
It stores a measured amount so that a flush uses the same water each time, and a running one wastes far more than most people would believe — hundreds of litres a day. The older sense is any tank for storing water, especially rainwater.
1nouncisternThe tank that holds the water for flushing.
“The toilet kept running because the cistern was broken.”
cistern is a tank.
Latin cisterna comes from cista, a box, from Greek kiste, a chest.
Ancient Greek
κίστη — box
Latin
cisterna
Old French
cisterne
Middle English
cisterne
English, today
cistern
Built from
From Middle English cisterne, from Old French cisterne (Modern French citerne) from Latin cisterna, from cista (“box”), from Ancient Greek κίστη (“box”). a doublet of cisterna.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA