copa

Forms

copa f (plural copas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish copa, inherited from Late Latin cŭppa (“cup”).^[2][3][4][1] Classical Latin has only cūpa (“cask, tub”), sometimes spelt with ⟨pp⟩; the sense “cup” first appears in Latin glosses, and Corominas holds that the Romance languages show the two meanings had already parted.^[2] Wiktionary derives it from the classical word, perhaps with the influence of Frankish *kopp.^[1] The inherited outcome of the classical word is the doublet cuba.^[1][5]

The same word is Portuguese copa, Catalan copa, Asturian copa, French coupe, Italian coppa and Romanian cupă.^[6][7][1] Old Spanish also had a masculine copo, a kind of cylindrical cup, recorded in Leonese charters of 917, 996 and 1008;^[2][3] Corominas thinks it gave copo “tuft of wool, flake of snow”.^[2][3]

De Vaan thinks the classical word is probably a non-Indo-European loanword, which explains the varying length of its vowel; he compares Sanskrit कूप (kū́pa, “pit, hole”), Ancient Greek κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”) and Old English hȳf (“beehive”).^[8] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“a hollow”), perhaps of substrate origin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 939.^[2][3] In the Disputa del alma y el cuerpo (c. 1201) the soul asks the body where its golden cups have gone: ¿las copas d'oro fino con que beuiés to uino?^[9] The Libro de Alexandre uses the word for the hollow of a tomb, a sense also found in a Latin inscription of Rome.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 called anything round and spread out a copa, such as the crown of a hat or of a tree.^[10] Autoridades in 1729 defined the drinking vessel as shaped like a chalice, and gave the crown of a tree, by its likeness to the cup, and a brazier of the same shape.^[11] The Academy's 1817 edition added the crown of a hat, a liquid measure of a quarter of a cuartillo and the cards of the suit of copas.^[12] That of 1843 recorded the vault of an oven and the obsolete phrase tener la copa “to be the king's cupbearer”.^[13] The 1884 edition fixed the measure at 126 millilitres, and that of 1899 added the liquid a cup holds.^[14][15]

The DLE now also gives a unit of alcoholic drink, a sports trophy and the competition for it, and the cup of a brassiere.^[4] In Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia copa is a hubcap.^[16] The first record from the Americas, of 1513, lists glass cups in Puerto Rico.^[17]

Timeline

• 917 – the masculine copo, a kind of cup, in a Leonese charter.^[2][3]
• 939 – a charter, the first record of copa.^[2][3]
• c. 1201 – the Disputa del alma y el cuerpo has copas d'oro fino.^[9]
• c. 1250 – first record of copero “cupbearer”.^[3]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records copa de sombrero and copa de árbol.^[10]
• 1729 – Autoridades records the treetop and the brazier.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy fixes the measure at 126 millilitres.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stemmed drinking glass, a goblet.^[4][1]
2. The liquid a copa holds: Bebió media copa de licor y se fue.^[4]
3. A unit of alcoholic drink, a drink: Ya lleva tres copas.^[4][1]
4. The crown of a tree, its branches and leaves.^[4][1]
5. The crown of a hat.^[4][1]
6. Each cup of a brassiere.^[4][1]
7. A liquid measure, a quarter of a cuartillo, equal to 126 millilitres.^[4]
8. A cup-shaped brazier (brasero) with two handles, and its concave cover.^[4]
9. A card of the suit of copas in the Spanish deck; the ace of that suit.^[4][1]
10. A trophy in sports, and the competition held for it.^[4][1]
11. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia) A hubcap.^[16]

Word family

• copero
• copón
• copudo
• copo
• copita
• copete

Related words

• cuba
• Latin cūpa
• Italian coppa
• French coupe

Usage notes

Common phrases are ir de copas “to go out drinking”, bar de copas and sombrero de copa “top hat”.^[1][18] Copa del horno is the vault of an oven.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 185
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. copa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. copa
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 185
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cuppa
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cuppa
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. copa
10. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 509
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 583
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 239
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 195
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 289
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 268
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. copa
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. copa
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. copa