Obs. [Old Northumbrian copp ? masc., cup, vessel, corresp. to ON. kopp-r cup, small vessel, MDu. cop(p), MLG. and Du. kop drinking-cup, OHG. chopf, MHG. kopf beaker, bowl, generally thought to be akin in origin to OE. cuppe fem., CUP. Med.L. had both coppa and cuppa; cf. It. coppa, Pr. copa, F. coupe: the relations between the Teutonic and Romanic words are difficult to determine.
Copp and cuppe apparently came down into ME. as distinct words; but ME. had also coppe, app. a mixture of the two, or a northern form of cuppe, CUP, assimilated to copp. It is not possible to separate the plural of copp from that of coppe, and the examples of coppes have consequently been all considered under CUP; but it is possible that some of them belong here.]
1. A drinking-vessel, a cup.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Mark ix. 41. Sua hua … drinca ʓeseleð iuh calic vel copp wætres on noma minum. Ibid., John xix. 29. Bolla full vel copp full of æcced.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 91. 1st Pastor. I drynk for my parte. 2nd P. Abyde, lett cop reylle.
1500–20. Dunbar, The Dance, 96. Him followit mony fowll drunckart, With can and collep, cop and quart.
b. To drink or play cop-out: to drain the cup.
1508. Dunbar, Testament, 101. Drynkand and playand cop-out.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 631. At euirilk draucht tha playit ay cop out.
1818. [see CAP sb.3 1 b].
2. A measure of quantity: the fourth of a Scotch peck; now also CAP. [Perhaps a different word.]
1497. Haliburton’s Ledger, in C. Innes, Scotl. in Mid. Ages, viii. (1860), 245. 4 copis of fegis, cost 20 g. the cop. Ibid. 2 copis of raysins, cost 5s. the cop.
3. Comb. cop-ambry, a chest or closet for cups and vessels; cop-house, a house or room for the same purpose. See also the combinations of CUP.
15[?]. Aberdeen Reg. (Jam.). A langsald bed, a copamry, & ane schuring.
1542. Inventories (Jam.). Memorandum, thir veschell underwritten … In the cophous, [etc.].
1663. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I., I. 157 (Jam.). They brake down beds, boards, cop-ambries, glass windows, [etc.].
