quaich
/kweɪx/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.42 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A traditional shallow, two-handled cup of Scottish origin symbolizing friendship, originally used to toast the arrival or departure of a visitor.
noun
Any two-handled drinking vessel or trophy.
Example Sentences
- "The quaighs were deep, the liquor strong, / And on the tale the yeoman throng, / Had made a comment sage and long, [...]"
- "Every evening through all the summer Lampusa put out for them before her rock-hewn kitchen a silver quaich of milk; then she summoned the creatures with a low call."
- "A quaich was an ideal gift when made from the timber of the fifteenth-century Alloway Kirk, which, "as you will have read in 'Tam O'Shanter', was a ruin in [Robert] Burns day but had the roof nearly intact until the turn of that century, (18th-19th). The rafters and other load bearing beams were ideal for souvenir makers" (letter, Nov. 19, 1991)."
Etymology
From Scots quaich, from Scottish Gaelic cuach (“bowl, goblet”), from Old Irish cuäch (“goblet”), from Proto-Celtic *kaɸukos (“cup, bowl, vessel”).