beaker
(ˈbiːkə(r))
Forms: 4 biker, 5 becure, byker, bikyr, 7 beeker, 7– beaker: see also bicker.
[ME. biker, ad. ON. bikarr; found in other Teutonic langs. (OS. bikeri, OHG. behhâri, behhar, MHG. and mod.G. becher:—OTeut. type *bikarjo-(m), but not a native Teut. word: considered to be a. L. bicārium; but as this is known only in med.L, it is doubtful whether it existed early enough to be the source of the Teutonic. (The Romanic words, It. bicchiére, pécchero, OF. pichier, pechier, referred by Diez to the same source, require a Latin type in biccār-.) Bīcārium is referred by Diez to Gr. βῖκος ‘drinking-bowl,’ of which *βῑκάριον would be a legitimately formed, though not recorded, diminutive. The original Eng. form is retained in Scotch bicker; the mod. form has apparently been assimilated to beak.]
1. a. A large drinking vessel with a wide mouth, an open cup or goblet. (Now chiefly in literary use.)
| 1348 Acc. Edw. Pr. Wales in Promp. Parv. 35 Magne pecie argenti, vocate Bikers. 1420 E.E. Wills (1882) 45 A becure of seluer. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 35/2 Byker, cuppe (v.r. bikyr), cimbium. 1600 Rowlands Let. Humours Blood vi. 75 Fill him his Beaker, he will never flinch, To giue a full quart pot the empty pinch. 1725 Pope Odyss. xiv. 117 The prince a silver beaker chose. 1872 Freeman Hist. Ess. 14 His cupbearer was carrying..a royal beaker full of wine. |
b. The contents of a beaker.
| 1819 Scott Ivanhoe I. xv. 218 We drink this beaker..to the health of Wilfred of Ivanhoe. 1870 Disraeli Lothair xxx. 146 Stimulated by..beakers of Badminton. |
c. spec. in Archæol. A type of tall wide-mouthed vessel found in the graves of a people who came to Britain from Central Europe in the early Bronze Age; hence attrib., as beaker-folk, beaker-maker, beaker people.
| 1902 J. Abercromby in Jrnl. Anthrop. Inst. XXXII. 374, I propose to substitute for the double-barrelled name ‘drinking cup’, the compacter term ‘beaker’. 1906 Archaeol. æliana II. 147 The Dilstor Park find..also proves the great difficulty of attempting to fix any relevant dates of Bronze Age beakers by a comparison either of their shape or ornamentation. 1916 Jrnl. Anthrop. Inst. XLVI. 117 The Borreby, or Beaker-Maker Type... Probably tall and often fair, light eyed, broad headed, short faced. 1922 Ibid. LII. 45 The culture is that known in Britain as that of the Beaker-folk. 1932 Discovery Aug. 270/1 The Bronze Age in England began roughly about 2,000 b.c. with the arrival of the ‘Beaker’ people on the east coast—people who used bronze and copper knives and pots of a special type. 1935 Proc. Prehist. Soc. i. 83 A solitary beaker from a cist at Barroose, Lonan, and three polished flint discoidal knives from the neighbourhood of Peel, are the only indications of the beaker people on the island. 1963 H. N. Savory in Foster & Alcock Culture & Environment iii. 26 The barbed and tanged arrowheads which were undoubtedly introduced into south Wales by the ‘Beaker Folk’. |
2. An open-mouthed glass vessel, with a lip for pouring, used in scientific experiments.
| 1877 Watts Fownes' Chem. II. 16 The acid containing the ammonia is poured out into a beaker. |