cupa

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkuː.pa]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkuː.pa]^[1]

Forms

cūpa f (genitive cūpae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kū̆p-, probably a non-Indo-European loanword that spread to many languages, which would explain why the /u/ is sometimes long and sometimes short.^[2] Wiktionary takes it from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“hollow”), perhaps of substrate origin.^[1]

Compare Sanskrit कूप (kū́pa, “pit, well”), Ancient Greek κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”) and Old English hȳf (“beehive”), the source of English hive.^[2][3][1] Saalfeld takes it from Ancient Greek κύπη (kúpē, “hole”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cato onwards,^[2] who lists ten small casks among the things needed for a press room.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It was a large wooden cask or tub, for wine and also for grain, as in Varro, Cicero and Caesar, who had casks filled with pitch and pine.^[3][5] In inscriptions it also meant a niche for ashes in a columbarium, or a tomb.^[3][6]

The spelling cuppa appears in the Digest.^[3] In Medieval Latin of Catalonia it was a large wine vat, while cuppa meant a drinking cup.^[7] Its descendants include French cuve and Spanish and Portuguese cuba, and Etymonline traces English coop to it through Old English.^[1][8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato lists casks for the press room.^[3][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of wine casks.^[3][9]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar describes casks filled with pitch.^[3][9]
• 949 – A Catalan inventory lists wine vats.^[7]
• mid-14th century – English coop is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cask, tub, barrel, vat.^[3][1]
2. A niche for ashes in a columbarium; a tomb.^[3][6]

Word family

• cūpārius
• cupella
• cūpula

Related words

• English coop

Usage notes

A second cūpa in Cato is the bar of an oil mill, from Ancient Greek κώπη (kṓpē, “handle”).^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de