Etymologically
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cup

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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