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2:00pm on Sunday, 17th October, 2021:
Anecdote
At school, we used to have these plastic drinking vessels that everyone called "beakers". This is because they were indeed beakers.
The word "beaker" seems to have fallen out of fashion of late. It used to be that adults would drink out of beakers, but now only children seem to do so. There are beakers in chemistry labs, but they're not for drinking out of unless you've watched a bad Youtube video.
Also at school, we were taught about the Beaker People of prehistory, who were so called because they made distinctively-shaped beakers. The name seems to have changed since I was 11, though, and they're now the Bell Beaker Culture. The "Bell" refers to shape of their beakers, which is like an upside-down bell. I don't know why the extra designation was added; it's not as if there are great swathes of prehistoric people known for the different shapes of their beakers. Also, is it really worth adding the extra adjective when it's inaccurate? Those beakers are the shape of inverted bells, not bells.
If they were being given a name today, they'd probably be called the Cuppies.
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Copyright © 2021 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).