13.12.25: Latin vocabulary: dining and cooking [8]; liquids and drinking vessels (2)

In English, the terms used for different drinking vessels create very specific images in our minds e.g. a cup of tea / a mug of tea / an Espresso cup; a glass of beer / a tankard of beer; a glass of champagne / a champagne flute

Latin, too, has different words but they do not represent modern equivalents:

[i]

pōculum, -ī [2/n]: any form of drinking cup, including a tea cup; this is the word that is now most commonly used

vitreus, -a, -um: made of glass; vitrea: glassware [literally: things made of glass]

pōcillum, -ī [2/n]: a small cup; can refer to a coffee cup

patera, -ae [1/f]: broad, flat dish; saucer

[ii]

calix, calicis [3/m]: (Lewis & Short) cup, goblet, a drinking-vessel; “the drinking-cup, usually made of earthenware, round, with a broad top, feet, and horizontal handles” (Thurston Peck: Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities)

cantharus, -ī [2/m]: tankard; “the cantharus differed from the calix in being larger and having vertical handles” (Harry Thurston Peck: Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities); this noun is listed in the Neo-Latin lexicon to refer specifically to a tankard or German Bierkrug - cantharus cervēs(i)ae – although pōculum is given as an alternative

[iii]

gustō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus [1]: taste

īnfundō, -ere, īnfūdī, īnfūsus  [3]: pour into

īnfundis vīnum (Apicius): you pour in wine; note that Apicius also uses this verb with food items that are not liquid e.g. nucleōs īnfundis: you ‘pour in’ nut kernels; we might simply say ‘add’ in this context

cochleās: vīventes in lac … īnfundēs (Apicius): snails: you will pour them living into milk