Meaning

noun a city on the Zhu Jiang delta in southern China; the capital of Guangdong province and a major deep-water port

noun a small administrative division of a country

verb provide housing for (military personnel)

originFrom Portuguese Cantão, from Mandarin 廣東 /广东 (Guǎngdōng). Doublet of Guangdong. Compare Spanish Cantón, French Canton, Italian Canton, Russian Кантон (Kanton). Unrelated to English canton.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0