Also canephor, canephora. [a. L. canēphora, Gr. κανηφόρος adj. (f. κάνεον basket + -φορος carrying), also as sb. in senses given. In mod.F. canéphore, whence Eng. canephor.]
a. In ancient Greece, one of the ‘maidens who carried on their heads baskets containing the sacred things used at the feasts of Demeter, Bacchus, and Athena’ (Liddell and Scott); hence, b. Arch. applied to ‘figures of young persons, of either sex, bearing on their heads baskets containing materials for sacrifice’ (Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., Gloss.).
1849. Fraser’s Mag., XXXIX. 713. To be chosen canephor was as if ‘Beautiful’ were stamped on the lintel of a woman’s door.
1880. Warren, Book-plates, iii. 23. The head of a canephorus.
