beaker

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English biker,^[2][3][4] and most dictionaries take that as borrowed from Old Norse bikarr.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} The Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart instead derive biker from Medieval Latin bicārium, and the modern form, bekyr about 1380, from Middle Dutch bēker (“goblet”);^[9][10] the American Heritage Dictionary names both Middle English and Middle Dutch forms,^[11] and Etymonline gives either Norse or Dutch.^[12] The Norse word goes with Old Saxon bikeri, Old High German behhari and German Becher.^[2][5][12] Ayto and Merriam-Webster Unabridged think Old Norse took it from Old Saxon.^[6][3] The OED notes a Germanic type Proto-Germanic *bikarjo-, not native to Germanic: it is referred to Latin bicārium, but this is known only in Medieval Latin, so the OED doubts it existed early enough.^[2] Following Diez, the OED and others refer that Latin word to Ancient Greek βῖκος (bîkos, “drinking bowl, earthen jug”),^{[2][12][5][10][3][6]} which also gave pitcher through Old French pichier, and Italian bicchiere.^[12][6][4] The Greek word is probably not Indo-European;^[3] Etymonline calls its origin uncertain, reports a Syriac word for a two-handled jug or an Egyptian word for an oil flask as possible sources,^[12] and Barnhart calls it Egyptian.^[10] The original form survives in Scots bicker, and the OED thinks the modern form was assimilated to beak.^[2][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ornate covered bowl for mixing wine, or a large drinking vessel: 1348, when accounts of Edward, Prince of Wales list Bikers of silver.^[2][9] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century,^[12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The earliest record is of silver vessels with covers.^[9] Johnson (1755) took it from beak and defined it as a cup with a spout shaped like a bird's beak, quoting Pope.^[13] It now survives in that drinking sense chiefly in literary use,^[2][14] as in Keats's "O for a beaker full of the warm South".^[12] Scott used it for the contents of such a vessel in Ivanhoe (1819).^[2] An open glass vessel with a pouring lip is recorded from 1877, in Fownes's chemistry manual.^[2][12] From 1902, in Abercromby, archaeologists have used it for a tall wide-mouthed vessel found in Bronze Age graves,^[2] with the adjective Beaker dated 1905.^[3] In underworld slang a beaker was a silver tankard from 1718.^[15]

Timeline

• 1348 – biker, a large silver drinking vessel.^[2][9]
• c. 1380 – the form bekyr.^[10]
• 1718 – underworld slang, a silver tankard.^[15]
• 1819 – the contents of a beaker.^[2]
• 1877 – a glass laboratory vessel with a pouring lip.^[2][12]
• 1902 – a Bronze Age grave vessel, in archaeology.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deep, open, usually cylindrical container of glass or similar material, with a lip for pouring, used in laboratories: She heated the solution in a small beaker.^[8][3][2]
2. A large drinking cup with a wide mouth and often no handle, sometimes of plastic; a goblet (in the older sense now chiefly literary).^[3][2][14]
3. The amount a beaker holds.^[8][2]
4. (archaeology) A tall wide-mouthed vessel of the Bronze Age, found in the graves of the beaker folk.^[2][3]

Word family

• beaker folk

Related words

• pitcher
• beak

Usage notes

Green's Dictionary of Slang separately records underworld beaker from beak, a fowl (1857), with beaker-hauler, a poultry thief.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com