Copful

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Filled to the very top or heaped above the rim of a container, as an archaic measure of something piled high
2. Brimming over with contents so that the surface rises in a mound above the edge of the vessel
3. Describing a vessel or measure packed so full that its contents rise into a heap above the top

Etymology: "Copful" describes a container filled so high that the contents rise into a heap above the rim, the sense behind the old phrase "heaping measure." It is built from "cop," a word for a rounded top or summit. In Middle English "cop" meant the head or crown of something, and the same root gives "cop" in the sense of a conical mound of thread wound on a spindle, which is shaped like a little peak. Adding "-ful" to a noun for a container is one of English's most productive patterns, as in "spoonful" or "handful." "Copful" follows that pattern, so the word is a plain compound of a noun for a peak and the suffix for a quantity that fills something. Its origins in "cop" are secure, though the exact early dates of the adjective are less certain.