cup

From Middle English cuppe, coppe, from the merger of Old English cuppe (“cup”) and Old English copp (“cup, vessel”).

Old English cuppe is a borrowing from Late Latin cuppa, itself of obscure origin, but probably from earlier Latin cūpa (“tub, cask”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“a hollow”). Old English copp, however, is from Proto-West Germanic *kopp (“round object, bowl, vessel, knoll, summit, crown of the head”), from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, arch”) (whence also obsolete English cop (“top, summit, crown of the head”), German Kopf (“top, head”)).

The Middle English word was further reinforced by Anglo-Norman cupe and Old French cope, coupe, from Latin cuppa. Compare also Saterland Frisian Kop (“cup”), West Frisian kop (“cup”), Dutch kop (“cup”), German Low German Koppke, Köppke (“cup”), Danish kop (“cup”), Swedish kopp (“cup”). Doublet of coupe and keeve.

• enPR: kŭp, IPA^(key): /kʌp/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ʌp

cup (plural cups)

1. A concave vessel for drinking from, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle.

   Coordinate terms: mug, pannikin

   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

   Pour the tea into the cup.

2. The contents of said vessel.

   Synonym: cupful

   I drank two cups of water but still felt thirsty.

3. A customary unit of measure
   1. (US) A US unit of liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (¹⁄₁₆ of a US gallon; 236.5882365 mL) or 240 mL.
   2. (Canada) A Canadian unit of measure equal to 8 imperial ounces (¹⁄₂₀ imperial gallon; 227.3 mL) or 250 mL.
   3. (UK, dated) A British unit of measure equal to ¹⁄₂ imperial pint (10 imperial ounces; 284 mL) or 300 mL.
4. A trophy in the shape of an oversized cup.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

   The World Cup is awarded to the winner of a quadrennial football tournament.

5. A contest for which a cup is awarded.

   The World Cup is the world's most widely watched sporting event.

6. (soccer) The main knockout tournament in a country, organised alongside the league.
   • 2002, Rob Dimery; Peter Watts, Guinness world records, Gullane Children's Books, →ISBN:

     Until it was disbanded in 1999, the European Cup-Winners Cup was contested annually by the winners of Europe's national cups.

   • 2011, Michael Grant; Rob Robertson, The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses, Birlinn, →ISBN:

     Wallace had the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Scottish Cups in the same season.

   • 2014, Martí Perarnau, Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich, Birlinn, →ISBN:

     One week earlier, they had lost 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal [the German cup] final in Berlin.

7. (golf) A cup-shaped object placed in the target hole.

   The ball just misses the cup.

8. (in combination) Any of various sweetened alcoholic drinks.

   cider cup

   gin cup

   claret cup

9. (US, Canada) A rigid concave protective covering for the male genitalia.

   Synonym: (UK) box

   Players of contact sports are advised to wear a cup.

10. One of the two parts of a brassiere which each cover a breast.

    The cups are made of a particularly uncomfortable material.

    1. Prefixed with a letter, used as a measurement of bra or breast size.
       • 2010, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Books 1-6, page 1149:

         "For cleavage to show up in these photos, a girl has to have C-cup breasts — at least that's what they told me once."

11. (mathematics) The symbol ${\displaystyle \cup }$ denoting union and similar operations.

    Coordinate term: cap

12. (tarot) A suit of the minor arcana in tarot, or one of the cards from the suit.
13. (ultimate frisbee) A defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower; or those three players.
14. A flexible concave membrane used to temporarily attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction.

    Synonym: suction cup

15. Anything shaped like a cup.

    the cup of an acorn

    • 1745, William Shenstone, Elegy VIII

      The cowslip's golden cup no more I see.

16. (medicine, historical) A cupping glass or other vessel or instrument used to produce the vacuum in cupping.
17. (figurative) That which is to be received or indured; that which is allotted to one; a portion of blessings and afflictions.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 26:39:

      O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

• → Farefare: kɔpɩ
• → Hebrew: קאפ‎ (kap)
• → Japanese: カップ (kappu)
• → Korean: 컵 (keop)
• → Maori: kapu

cup (third-person singular simple present cups, present participle cupping, simple past and past participle cupped)

1. (transitive) To form into the shape of a cup, particularly of the hands.

   Cup your hands and I'll pour some rice into them.

2. (transitive) To hold something in cupped hands.

   He cupped the ball carefully in his hands.

3. (transitive) To pour (a liquid, drink, etc.) into a cup.

   We are cupping some new brands of coffee today.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To supply with cups of wine.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene vii]:

     Cup us, till the world go round.

5. (transitive, surgery, archaic) To apply a cupping apparatus to; to subject to the operation of cupping.
6. (transitive, engineering) To make concave or in the form of a cup.

   to cup the end of a screw

• cup on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• CPU, P.U.C., PUC, Pcu, UCP, UPC

From Proto-Albanian *tˢupa, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱuh₁-po- (compare Sanskrit शोफ (śópha, “swelling”)), from *ḱuh₁- (“to swell up”).

• IPA^(key): /tsup/

cup m (feminine cupe)

1. odd (not even)

• tek

Gheg variant of sup.

cup m (indefinite plural cupe, definite singular cupi, definite plural cupet)

1. shoulder

From Late Latin cūpus, a variant of cūpa (“tub, cask, tun, vat”).

cup m (plural cups)

1. winepress
2. cellar

• cúpula

• “cup” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

From Vulgar Latin capus, masculinization of Latin caput. Compare Italian capo, Romanian cap, Spanish cabo.

cup m

1. head

From English cup.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑp/, [ˈkɑp]
• Syllabification^(key): cup

cup

1. cup (contest)

From English cup (“trophy”).

cup m (definite singular cupen, indefinite plural cuper, definite plural cupene)

1. (sports) cup (trophy; the competition culminating in the winning of the trophy)

• cupfinale
• verdenscup

• pokal

• “cup” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English cup (“trophy”).

cup m (definite singular cupen, indefinite plural cupar, definite plural cupane)

1. (sports) cup (as above)

• cupfinale

• pokal

• “cup” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English cup.

• IPA^(key): /kɵp/, /kap/
• Rhymes: -ɵp, -ap

cup c

1. (sports) cup

• cup in Svensk ordbok (SO)