From Old French 'gobelet,' diminutive of 'gobel' (cup), probably from Gaulish Celtic 'gob' (mouth) — literally 'little mouth.'
A drinking vessel with a foot and a stem, typically made of glass or metal; a cup without handles, larger than a wine glass.
From Old French 'gobelet,' a diminutive of 'gobel' (a cup), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. The most common hypothesis derives 'gobel' from a Gaulish (Celtic) source related to Irish 'gob' (mouth, beak) and Welsh 'gwb' (beak), suggesting an original sense of 'little mouth' — a cup being, metaphorically, a small open mouth. An alternative theory connects it to Late Latin 'cupellus' (small cup), a diminutive of 'cupa' (tub, vat), but the phonetic
English 'gob' (a vulgar British slang term for mouth) may be a distant relative of 'goblet' — both possibly from the same Celtic root meaning 'mouth' or 'beak.' If so, telling someone to 'shut their gob' and handing them a goblet are etymologically related actions: one closes the mouth, the other fills it.