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A cup is a small container used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, polystyrene, plastic, lacquerware, or other materials. Normally, a cup is brought in contact with the mouth for drinking, distinguishing it from other tableware and drinkware forms such as ; however, a straw and/or lid may also be used. Many cups include handles, though some, such as beakers or small bowl-shaped cups common in Asia, do not.
There are many specific terms for different types of cups in different cultures, many depending on the type of drink they are mostly used for, and the material they are made of; in particular, cups made of glass are mostly called a "glass" in contemporary English. Cups of different styles may be used for different types of liquids or other foodstuffs (e.g, teacups and measuring cups), in different situations (e.g, at water stations or in Ceremony and ), or for decorative arts.Rigby 2003: p. 573–574.
The history of cups goes back well into prehistory, initially mostly as handle-less beakers or bowls, and they have been found in most cultures across the world in a variety of shapes and materials. While simple cups have been widely spread across societies, high-status cups in expensive materials have been very important since at least the Bronze Age, and many found in burials.
Modern household shapes of cups generally lack a stem, but this was not always the case. The large metal standing cup or covered cup with a base, Stemware and usually a cover, was an important prestige piece in medieval houses that could afford them, and often used as a "welcome cup" or for toasts. The form survives in modern sporting trophies, and in the of church liturgy. The 15th-century silver Lacock Cup is a rare English secular survival. These were the sort of cups offered by , historically often an important office in courts.
Names for different types of cups vary regionally and may overlap (in American English "cups" include ""). Any transparent cup, regardless of actual composition, is more likely to be called a "glass"; therefore, while a flat-bottomed cup made of paper is a "paper cup", a transparent one of very similar shape, is likely to be called a "tumbler", or one of many terms for glasses, instead. Penelope Stock, a lexicographer, found that cups, mugs and glasses are "near-synonyms", although "sufficient differences" can be found that divide them into different groups.
Wierzbicka and Keith Allan (in his work "On Cup", 2020) compare definitions of the cup:
| + Cup definitions |
| Open, bowl-shaped |
| Small |
| "Chiefly" drinking, commonly used for hot liquids |
| Optional, one or more |
| Common |
| Optional |
| Optional |
Many languages − including English, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, German − use two separate words for mugs and cups. Wierzbicka suggests that this situation is due to a slightly different functionality: the traditional cups are designed for drinking while sitting down at the table, while the mug is supposed to be used anywhere. This, in her opinion, explains all the specific features:
The Bell Beaker culture, is an important archaeological culture named after the distinctive inverted-bell pottery beaker cups it used,So it struck early archaeologists. Actually it might be said that only the bottom of the beakers is bell-like; at the top nearly all have a "waist" below a flaring "lip". marking the beginning of the European Bronze Age from around 2800 BC. The Ringlemere Cup is a solid gold cup, with handle, from around 1600 BC, with the Rillaton Barrow one of two such cups known from England, with a handful of other locations and materials (such as the Hove amber cup) making up the "unstable" (round-bottomed) cups in precious materials from the Bronze Age.
Animal horns must often have been used as cups from very early on, and the rhyton is a cup that imitates their shape, to a greater or lesser degree, in metal or pottery. It was the general elite type of cup throughout the Mediterranean in the Iron Age, from Greece to Ancient Persia and beyond. Only some had feet or bases that allowed them to be rested on a flat surface. Large numbers were decorated with or as animal heads, or terminated in the figure of an animal.
Other than the rhyton, ancient Greek drinking cup shapes were mostly very wide and shallow bowls, usually on short stems and with two handles, generally oriented horizontally, along the same plane as the mouth of the cup, rather than at 90 degrees to it, as in modern . Survivals in ancient Greek pottery are numerous, and often brilliantly painted, but all probably were made also in silver, where survivals are extremely rare, as grave robbers did not bother with pottery.Burn, 87 The most important shapes are the kylix, kantharos, skyphos, lip cup, and the breast-shaped mastos with no base.See entries in Gisela M. A. Richter, Marjorie J. Milne, Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases, Metropolitan Museum of art, New York, 1935, fully online.
The Roman Empire used cups throughout Europe, with "goblet"-type shapes with shortish stems, or none, preferred for luxury examples in silver,Burn, 202–203 like the Warren Cup, or Roman glass, such as the Lycurgus Cup in color-changing glass, or the spectacular carved-glass . By the 2nd century AD even the wealthy tended to prefer drinking from glass, as adding no taste to the drink.Burn, 201–204
An ancient shape of cup in various parts of Eurasia was the "flanged cup" with either one or two flat horizontal strips attached to part of the top of the cup, acting as handles. These are found as grave goods in elite burials from around the Warring States Period (c. 475 to 221 BC), in Chinese lacquerware (wood coated with resin from a tree) with two flanges at the sides of an ovoid cup. These are also called "eared cups" (耳杯) and "winged goblets". "Decorated eared cup", Princeton Art Museum A form with a flange on only one side appears in ancient Persian silver, and then later in Chinese porcelain, apparently gradually developing into a shape for brush-washers on the calligrapher's desk. "White Stoneware Flanged Cup", Jin dynasty, 12th – 13th century, Ben Janssens Oriental Art
Most ancient types of cup from the Americas were pottery, but around the Gulf of Mexico, Native American societies used the shells of the Horse conch for drinking cups, among other purposes.Atlantic City Aquarium, Horse conch . Accessed April 26, 2014 The tall, decorated and slightly waisted qiru or keru of Andean civilizations first appears in the Early Intermediate Period (100–600 AD). They seem to have been high-status objects. Maya elites drank from elaborately painted pottery beakers such as the Fenton Vase and Princeton Maya Vase with God L.By convention, these cups are named "vases" or "cylinder vases". Ancient Greek pottery cups are also counted among Greek "vases"
In what is now the south-eastern US, traces of Yaupon tea containing caffeine have been found in pottery cups of an unusual shape: straight-sided, with a single thick spike as a handle near the top, opposite a slight pouring lip.
In the Early Middle Ages glass remained in production in northern Europe, especially Germany, probably as a luxury material. Anglo-Saxon glass had several types of cup, most shared with continental areas, including "palm cups" with no flat bottom, , glass horns, and different types of beaker.
In the European Middle Ages the shapes of most ordinary cups were closer to , , and rather than modern cups, in wood, pottery, or sometimes boiled leather. But the elite preferred cups with stems, and often covers, in metal, with glass a less common alternative. Large "ceremonial" or feasting cups, sometimes called or "welcome cups", and , including ivory, with metal mounts, were important prestige pieces, typically too large to drink from all evening, so passed around or drunk from once. The name for the very wide ancient Greek wine-cup kylix ended up via Latin as chalice, typically a handle-less goblet in metal, used in the Catholic mass, but also a secular shape. Many individual examples have served both secular and liturgical uses over their history.The Lacock Cup and Royal Gold Cup for example
By the end of the Middle Ages glass was becoming a much cheaper material, and over the Early Modern Period it replaced pottery and other materials as the norm for cups intended for cold drinks, especially wine and beer. The "wine cup" that had been a major prestige category since classical antiquity was largely replaced by the wineglass, and Beer glassware went the same way. Timothy Schroder places this change in England around the end of the 17th century, though others put it nearer the beginningTimothy Schroder, The National Trust Book of English Domestic Silver, 1500–1900, 100, 1988, Penguin/Viking, ; Glanville favours an earlier date. The OED records the first dated use in English of "glass" as a term for a vessel, rather than just the material, in 1393-4.OED "Glass", II, 5 – as "glases et verres". A new wave of hot drinks came to dominate the range of cups.
Chinese and Japanese cups have been shaped as small, rather wide, bowls for some 2,000 years, smaller versions of the shape used for eating and serving food. As well as the Chinese porcelain that very gradually overtook it, lacquerware is a prestige material. The same shapes are typically used in East Asia for both tea and wine or sake, and when they appeared in Europe in the 16th century, this shape was initially used for locally made cups for the new drinks of tea and coffee.
By the early 18th century, the European taste for handles on cups, strongly evident from antiquity, reasserted itself and a single vertical handle was added to a slightly more upright Chinese-style bowl to create both the very similar forms of the Western teacup and coffee cup, as well as a saucer. This was initially rather deeper than modern saucers, as it was considered usual to pour the hot liquid into the saucer to cool it slightly before drinking. Apart from a more shallow saucer the essential elements of these two forms in many contemporary examples have changed little since the mid-18th century. European porcelain manufacturers encouraged the development of different sizes of cup, and shapes of pot, for tea and coffee services.Hillier, 82
The 20th century brought the plastic cup, in both disposable and permanent washable forms, and the paper cup, normally disposable. Materials such as processed bamboo have also come into use.
The Royal Gold Cup is an exceptionally rare survival, made before 1391 for John, Duke of Berry, a French prince, who gave it to his uncle, Charles VI of France. It is in gold, decorated with jewels and scenes in enamel, with a cover and a boiled leather carrying case. It once had a triangular stand which has been lost. It weighs 1.935 kilos, so was perhaps used ceremonially rather than throughout meals. British Museum collection database. Royal Gold Cup. British Museum. Accessed January 11, 2023
The most traditional Chinese ritual bronze vessel for libations, the jue, has a large pouring lip, and may be regarded as a type of jug rather than a cup.
In the Christianity ritual of Eucharist, adherents drink from a cup of wine (or a wine substitute) to commemorate the Last Supper of Jesus. A chalice is often used for this purpose. Chalices are usually handleless metal cups on stems; originally such shapes were standard secular elite drinking cups, and many examples such as the Royal Gold Cup have been used for both religious and secular purposes over their history.
Apart from serving as drinking vessels, cups can be used as an alternative to as a receptacle, especially, for soup. Recipes have been published for cooking various dishes in cups in the microwave. Although mainly used for drinking, cups can also be used to store for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt).
, in Europe typically expensive with silver mounts, were long believed to have a range of medical benefits, including (like the rarer rhinoceros horn cups), the ability to detect or neutralize poisoned drinks.
are special cups that are used to drink mineral or thermal water directly from a spring, developed in north-west Bohemia during the 17th century and are now part of Czech folklore.
For large examples, the two-handled form based on the ancient kantharos is very often used. The size of many means that "vase" would be a more appropriate name, but "cup" has become established. Early trophies, mostly for horse-racing, were generally more simple goblet shapes.
Various cups have been designed so that drinking out of them without spilling is a challenge. These are called puzzle cups.
The cup game involves rhythmically striking plastic cups.
Metal and glass cups can use a double wall construction with a Vacuum flask to reduce the loss of heat and keep outside surfaces cooler.
Drinking cup in the shape of a fist, MFA, Boston (11244059164).jpg|Hittites drinking cup in the shape of a fist; 1400-1380 BC; silver; from Central Turkey; Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
Ankara Archaeology and art museum Skyphos Glazed terracotta 2019 3435.jpg|Roman art two-handled glazed cup; 1st century BC-4th Century AD; glazed terracotta; Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum (Ankara, Turkey)
China, Qing dynasty - Rectangular Wine Cup (Zun) with Dragon - 1952.500 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|Rectangular wine cup (Zun) with a dragon; 1700s; grayish-white jade; overall: 14 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art
Wedgwood Factory - Cup and Saucer - 1951.305 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|Neoclassicism coffee cup with saucer; circa 1790; jasper ware with relief decoration; diameter: 13.6 cm; by the Wedgwood Factory (England); Cleveland Museum of Art
France, 19th century - Cup and Saucer - 2009.366 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|French cup and saucer, decorated with Renaissance art ornaments; 1880–1900; enamel and silver; overall: 6.5 x 8.5 x 6.5 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art
Mocha cup, designed by Adolf Flad, made by KPM Berlin, 1902, porcelain, 1 of 6 - Bröhan Museum, Berlin - DSC04094.JPG|Art Nouveau cup; designed by Adolf Flad; 1902; porcelain; Bröhan Museum (Berlin, Germany)
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