scyphus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈsky.pʰʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈʃiː.fus]^[1]

Forms

scyphus m (genitive scyphī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκύφος (skúphos, “cup”).^[2][1][3] Köbler, following Frisk, calls the further origin of the Greek word unexplained.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short date it from Plautus, in the Asinaria.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a large drinking cup with two handles, a goblet, in Varro, Cicero, Tibullus, Virgil, Horace and Pliny the Elder.^[2][3] In Church Latin it is also the cup used at communion.^[1][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero in the Verrines.^[3][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a goblet.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large two-handled drinking cup, goblet.^[2][3][5][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A communion cup.^[1]

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts the old Latin words poculum and calix, which name any drinking vessel by its use, with scyphus, cantharus and cymbium, words of Greek origin that name particular kinds of cup by their shape.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper