chopin, n.
(ˈtʃɒpɪn)
Forms: (3 schopin), 4 chopyn, 6 choppyne, choppen, 7–8 choppin, chopine, 7– chopin, 8– Sc. chappin.
[? a. F. chopine an old measure = half a pint; f. chope ‘a kind of vessel containing about half a litre’, identified by Littré with mod.Ger. schoppen, LG. schopen a liquid measure of the same amount.]
a. ‘A French liquid measure containing nearly a pint of Winchester’ (J.), i.e. half an Old French pinte. b. A Scotch liquid measure, equal to a Scotch half-pint, or about a quart of English wine-measure.
| 1275 Mun. Gildhallæ, Lond. (Rolls) III. 432 Mensuræ quæ vocantur ‘schopinas’ et ‘gilles’. 1388 Wyclif 1 Kings vii. 26 marg. A sextarie is as a chopyn of Pariys. 1426 Sc. Act Jas. I (1597) §70 Twa gallownes and a halfe, and a choppen of the auld mette. 1608 R. Armin Nest Ninn. (1880) 17 Meate was brought and layde by him, and a Choppin of Wine (for so they call it there). 1611 Cotgr. Chopine, a chopine; or the Parisien halfe pint; almost as big as our whole one. c 1645 Howell Lett. vi. 59 My Landlord..brought up a chopin of Whitewine. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. III. 3 Sept., They..call for a chopine of two-penny. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth. 215 A chopin (two English pints) of new milk. 18.. Galt R. Gilhaize II. 217 (Jam.) On this night..they hae a chappin. 1837 in Fifesh. Advert. 21 Sept. (1888) 4/5 6½ bolls of meal, 3 chopins of milk. c 1850 G. Millswood New Fam. Receipt Bk. 57 One teaspoonful of this liquid to a choppin of water. |
c. attrib.
| c 1520 Dunbar Poems, Rycht airlie 26 Owt of ane choppyne stowp They drank twa quartis. 1749 Lett. in Soc. Life former Days (1865) A man was to go into a chopin bottle, and there play on the fiddle. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. I. 160 Chopin bottles were sold at 4s. 6d. per dozen. |
Hence † chopin v., ad. F. chopiner to tipple.
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xviii, Chopining and plying the pot. Ibid. ii. xxx, We tipled and chopined together. |