saucer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English saucer, also sauser and salser,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman saucer (“receptacle for sauce”), with Middle French saucier and the feminine sauciere (1328), modern saucière.^[3][4][5] The French words are formed from Old French sauce and the suffix -ier.^[3][4][5][6] Etymonline and Barnhart also name Medieval Latin saucerium, used in England, and trace the word to Late Latin salsārium, neuter of salsārius (“of or for salted things”), from Latin salsus (“salted”);^[7][8] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English think the French word was probably suggested by the Late Latin one,^[9][10] and the OED explains the Middle English spellings with -l- as a remodelling after it.^[3] Compare Spanish salsera and Italian salsiera.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dish, usually of metal, for condiments, sauces or salt at a meal: 1348, in the records of the Pewterers of London.^[3] Barnhart dates it to 1343,^[8] and Etymonline to the mid-14th century.^[7] The Middle English Dictionary also records saucer as a maker or seller of sauces, in surnames from the 1190s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The saucer was originally the small dish in which sauce was set on the table,^[7][4][3] the sense Johnson (1755) still gave first.^[11] It widened to any shallow round dish (Hoad dates this to the 17th century),^[4][3] then, from 1693, to the small dish with a ring in the centre on which a cup stands and which catches spilt liquid, by Etymonline's dating about 1700.^[3][7] Large round eyes were compared to saucers from the 14th century,^[3][7] originally with the condiment dish in mind,^[7] and saucer-eyed and saucer-eyes were current in many English dialects.^[12] Saucers alone was slang for eyes from 1858.^[3][13] The word was used in botany from 1578 for saucer-shaped parts of a plant,^[3] for the dish under a flowerpot from 1797,^[3] and in 1947 both saucer and flying saucer were applied to unidentified disc-shaped objects reported in the sky.^[8][3][7] The verb, first recorded in 1855 for making something saucer-shaped, later meant to pour hot tea or coffee into the saucer to cool it (1878).^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1348 – a dish for sauces or condiments at a meal.^[3]
• before 1425 – eyes compared to saucers.^[3]
• 1578 – in botany, a saucer-shaped part of a plant.^[3]
• 1693 – the small dish on which a cup stands.^[3]
• 1797 – a dish placed under a flowerpot.^[3]
• 1855 – verb, to make saucer-shaped.^[3]
• 1858 – slang, an eye.^[3][13]
• 1878 – verb, to pour a hot drink into a saucer to cool it.^[3]
• 1947 – a flying saucer.^[3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, shallow, round dish with a slight hollow in the centre, on which a cup stands: She set the cup back on its saucer.^[14][6][3]
2. A similar dish used for other purposes, such as one placed under a flowerpot.^[14][3]
3. Something shaped like a saucer.^[6][3]
4. A flying saucer or UFO.^[3][8]
5. (obsolete) A dish for sauces or condiments at table.^[6][3][9]

Verb

1. (dialect) To pour a hot drink into a saucer to cool it.^[6][3]
2. To give something the shape of a saucer.^[3][9]

Word family

• saucerlike
• cup-and-saucer plant
• flying saucer

Related words

• sauce
• salt

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins