Naggin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small bottle holding a measure of whisky, gin or another spirit, especially one sold in Ireland or Scotland
2. A little bottle of liquor, typically around a fifth of a pint, bought for a quick drink
3. A compact container of hard alcohol, usually sized for a single serving and common in British and Irish usage

Etymology: A "noggin" was originally a small wooden cup or mug, and in the 1800s the word was also used for the measure of liquor such a vessel held. "Naggin" is a variant of that same word, and it came to name the small bottle of spirits, with the sense shifting from the drinking vessel to the quantity or container of whisky it held. The earlier vessel sense of "noggin" is the root of the story, and the same pattern of a small drinking measure becoming a small bottle is what the variant keeps. The word's shape changed over time in dialect and regional speech, so spellings like "naggin" appear in records of that informal usage rather than in formal writing.