Tassie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small cup or bowl, typically used for drinking tea or other beverages
2. A shallow drinking cup, often with a handle, used especially in Scotland for serving drinks
3. A small vessel from which to drink, particularly a cup designed for a single serving

Etymology: "Tassie" is a Scottish and Australian informal word for a tasmanian-style... no, let me correct that: the word is the diminutive of "tass," a small drinking cup or goblet. The core of the story runs from Arabic to French to Scots, with the cup itself being the thing that travelled. The root is the Arabic "ṭās," meaning a bowl or basin. It passed into French as "tasse," a cup, and from there it came into Scots and English. Scots speakers attached the diminutive ending to form "tassie," a small drinking vessel, the sort of cup used for a dram of whisky or a measure of ale. The word moved from the bowl in a Middle Eastern kitchen to the cup on a Scottish sideboard, carried by French over several centuries. Its meaning stayed close to the object itself, with no dramatic shift, and it remains most at home in Scotland.

Synonyms: cup, goblet