cup

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kʌp/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cuppe, inherited from Old English cuppe, Northumbrian copp,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin cuppa (“cup”),^[2][3][4] a variant of Latin cūpa (“tub, cask”),^[2][3][5] the source of Italian coppa and Spanish copa.^[2] The Late Latin word was borrowed throughout Germanic: Dutch kopje (“cup”) and German Kopf, which now means only “head”.^[2][6][7] Etymonline cites de Vaan for a non-Indo-European loanword *kup- behind Latin cūpa and similar words for hollows.^[2] Some Middle English forms come from Old French cupe.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A drinking vessel: Old English cuppe, about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The chalice at Communion is the cup from 1382.^[9] The quantity a cup holds is from the late 14th century, and anything cup-shaped from about 1400.^[2] The biblical “cup” of suffering is from the late 14th century.^[2] A cup offered as a prize in a race is from the 1640s,^[2][10] first in horse-racing.^[10] In one's cups, “drunk”, is from the 1610s.^[2] The verb “to bleed with a cupping glass” is from the late 14th century^[2] or 1482,^[9] and “to form a cup”, as with the hands, from 1830.^[2] The cup of a bra is from 1938, and one's cup of tea by 1932.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English cuppe (Ælfric).^[3][9]
• 1382 – the Communion chalice.^[9]
• late 14th century – a cupful; verb, to bleed.^[2]
• 1610s – in one's cups.^[2]
• 1640s – a trophy.^[2]
• 1830 – verb, to form a cup.^[2]
• 1932 – cup of tea.^[2]
• 1938 – the cup of a bra.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small open container, usually with a handle, used for drinking; its contents.
2. A unit of volume, especially in cooking.
3. A cup-shaped trophy given as a prize; a competition for one.
4. Something shaped like a cup.
5. The chalice or wine of the Eucharist.

Verb

1. To place in or as in a cup; to shape like a cup.
2. To treat by cupping.

Word family

• cuplike

Related words

• cupboard
• cupola
• coop
• hive
• cupping

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press