cupola

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian cupola,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} also cuppola and cuppula in Florio,^[2] from Late Latin cūpula (“little cask, small vault or burying vault”),^[5][6][7][8] a diminutive of Latin cūpa (“cask, tub, barrel”).^[2][3][4][6] The OED compares Italian cupo (“hollow, concave”), and notes that the Italian word is also the source of French coupole.^[2] The Latin noun may be akin to words for hollow objects across Eurasia, such as Ancient Greek κύπελλον (kúpellon, “drinking vessel, goblet”), Old Norse húfr (“hull of a ship”) and Old English hȳf (“skep”).^[4][8] De Vaan takes it as probably a non-Indo-European loanword passed between many languages, which would explain why the length of its vowel varies.^[9] Etymonline and Hoad connect it with cup,^[3][6] and Weekley with coop.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rounded vault or dome forming a roof: 1549, in W. Thomas's Historie of Italie.^[2][8][5][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1540s, in architecture.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the architectural dome the word spread to things of the same shape.^[2] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, says that the Italian word means a hemispherical roof over a round building, as on the Pantheon, while in colloquial English use it could mean a small tower or lantern rising above a roof, with nothing of a dome about it.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave "a dome; the hemispherical summit of a building".^[11] The foundry sense of 1716 comes from the dome that led from the furnace to the chimney.^[2][6] In dialects of northern and midland England, as cupalo, cupel or cupelow, it meant a smelting house or a ventilating furnace.^[12] The 19th century added the revolving dome of an observatory, a domed organ in anatomy and an armoured gun turret on an iron-clad ship, and geologists took it up in the early 20th century.^[2][7] In American slang of about 1900 a cupola was the head.^[13]

Timeline

• 1549 – a rounded vault or dome forming a roof.^[2][5][8]
• 1615 – verb, to furnish with a cupola, in Sandys.^[2]
• 1652 – transferred, something likened to such a dome.^[2]
• 1716 – a furnace for melting metals for casting.^[2][6]
• 1829 – a dome-shaped organ or process, especially the summit of the cochlea.^[2]
• 1855 – the revolving dome of an observatory.^[2]
• 1862 – an armoured revolving gun dome on a warship.^[2]
• 1900 – slang, the head, in American English.^[13]
• 1911 – a small dome-shaped projection on a batholith.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rounded vault or dome forming a roof or ceiling.^[8][14][2]
2. A small structure, usually domed, on top of a roof or dome, used for light, as a lookout or as an ornament; a lantern: A weathervane turned above the cupola of the old barn.^[8][14]
3. A vertical cylindrical furnace for melting iron or other metals for casting.^[8][14][2]
4. An armoured dome protecting guns on a warship; a turret.^[14][2][7]
5. (anatomy) A dome-shaped structure, especially the end of the cochlea; a cupula.^[2][7][8]
6. (geology) A small dome-shaped projection on a larger igneous mass.^[2][7][8]

Verb

1. To furnish with a cupola.^[8][2]

Word family

• cupolaed
• cupolated

Related words

• cup
• cupel
• cupula
• hive
• coop

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 t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins