bicchiere

Forms

bicchiere m (plural bicchieri)^[1] Older forms include Old Italian bicchiero, Old Italian becchieri, Old Italian bichiere and Old Italian becchiere, and Old Roman has Old Italian pichieri (1434–1449).^[2][3] The final vowel stayed unsettled until the 19th century: Borsieri still wrote bicchiero.^[3][4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][5][6] Nocentini takes it as a loan, borrowed from Old French bichier, from Vulgar Latin *bicārium (“jug, tankard”);^[7][5][8] the Latin word is confirmed by a 9th-century gloss Medieval Latin becarius “a kind of small jug”, and Old Walloon has bichier as a measure for liquids.^[3][7][4][9] Three sources compete for the Latin word, as DELI sets them out: Ancient Greek βῖκος (bîkos, “wine jar”), a Vulgar Latin derivative, and Frankish *bikāri.^[3][2] Nocentini, Prati, Treccani and Wiktionary favour the Greek word, Treccani with a formation in France;^{[7][4][10][1]} Devoto, Devoto–Oli and GRADIT start from the Frankish word, which GDLI connects with Latin bacar (“wine vessel”), a word recorded by Festus.^{[11][8][5][12]} Zaccaria thought the word German, because the early Medieval Latin bicarium appears first in German writers.^[13] DELI thinks closer study might reconcile the explanations.^[3]

The Latin word passed early into Germanic: Old High German behhari (“cup, tankard”), German Becher and English beaker.^[7][1] Forms with initial /p/ and the stress drawn back, in Italian and in the Balkans, can only be explained through a reshaping in Old High German, according to Sabatini.^[3] They include Old Serbian pehari, Czech pehar, Hungarian pohár, Romanian pahar and Albanian pehar, and Italian pecchero “large tankard”, which Redi called a word come from Germany.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the plural bichieri in Matasala (1234); Jacopone da Todi has becchieri (before 1306) and Cecco Angiolieri becchier (before 1313).^[3][14] The TLIO's first example is in Ugo di Perso, a 13th-century poet of Cremona.^[2] The sense is the cup to drink from; the first record of a glass as a measure of its contents is in Boccaccio (1348–1353).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio's company in the Decameron finds tables laid with white cloths and “glasses that looked like silver” (bicchieri che d'ariento parevano).^[12][15] In Old Italian the glass was also a byword for a thing of little worth, and un bicchiere d'acqua meant a trifle.^[2] In the 19th century Tommaseo kept bicchiere for a drinking glass, mostly of glass, apart from tazza, a cup for coffee of earthenware or other material.^[15]

Bicchierata, the contents of a glass, is in Tommaseo's dictionary (1865), and as a drink in company in Arlia (1895), with Milanese biccerada from 1843.^[3] Sottobicchiere “coaster” is recorded in 1893.^[7] Technical senses followed: an old measure for liquids, the outer case of a grenade and the dice cup (1973).^[3][5] Devoto–Oli explains il bicchiere della staffa, the last drink before leaving, by the old custom of drinking it with a foot already in the stirrup.^[8]

Timeline

• 1234 – The plural bichieri is recorded.^[3][14]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses becchieri.^[3][5]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses bicchiere for the contents of a glass.^[3]
• 1434–1449 – Roman pichieri appears in a book of recipes.^[3]
• 1865 – Bicchierata is recorded.^[3]
• 1893 – Sottobicchiere is recorded.^[7]
• 1973 – The senses “dice cup” and “grenade casing” enter the dictionaries.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drinking glass, a small vessel, usually of glass, used to drink from: Ha comprato sei bicchieri da birra.^[5][8][16]
2. A glassful, the amount a glass holds; a glass of wine or another alcoholic drink: Prendiamo un bicchiere dopo il lavoro?^[5][16][10]
3. (chemistry) A beaker, bicchiere graduato, a measuring glass.^[6][1]
4. An old unit of measure for liquids, of different size in different places.^[5][8][10]
5. The outer casing of a grenade.^[5][16][14]

Word family

• bicchierino
• bicchierata
• sbicchierare
• sbicchierata
• sottobicchiere
• bicchieraio

Related words

• pecchero
• German Becher
• English beaker

Usage notes

Common phrases are affogare in un bicchiere d'acqua, to be at a loss over a trifling difficulty, una tempesta in un bicchier d'acqua, a great fuss about nothing, and alzare il bicchiere, to drink a toast.^[14][10][6] Fondo di bicchiere is a fake diamond.^[14][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 140
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse