コップ

Confident

koppu

cup; glass

katakana

Origin

Source language
Dutch (nl)
Source form
kop
Borrowing route
オランダ語 → 近世/近代日本語
Semantic shift
cup → 飲み物用のコップ
First attested
1800

Story

The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten lists both Portuguese copo and Dutch kop for コップ. Dutch kop means a drinking cup, especially for coffee or tea, and Portuguese copo means a drinking glass or cup. Shogakukan cites Honcho Sejidan Ki in 1733, where コップ referred mainly to Western-style drinking vessels, including forms that could resemble wine glasses. The word belongs to the Edo-period contact vocabulary around foreign drinkware, alcohol, glass, and table habits. Dutch learning later strengthened the kop form, while Portuguese copo explains why older Japanese sources do not fit a single Dutch-only account. In Meiji Japan, related words entered or settled with narrower roles: カップ for handled cups such as コーヒーカップ, グラス for glass drinking vessels, タンブラー for tall straight vessels, and ジョッキ for beer mugs. Today コップ usually means a handleless everyday cup made of glass, plastic, paper, or metal. English cup often includes a handle, and glass can mean either the material or a drinking vessel. Japanese separates these more often: コップ, カップ, and グラス are not identical. School lunch and office pantry labels often use コップ for shared cups. A short example is 紙コップを一つ取る. The everyday word is broader than Dutch kop in some contexts.

Sources

Other beverage loanwords

Other Dutch (nl) loanwords

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