Quaich
July 19th 2025
The entry for quaich provides the following detailed description: “A shallow bowl-shaped drinking-cup, usually made of wooden staves hooped with metal with two horizontal projections from the rim as handles, more artistic specimens having silver mountings or being made entirely of silver. Their use is now mainly ornamental.”
A very early example comes from 1546 in the accounts of Acta Dominorum Concilii et Sessionis: “Ane drinking quaich price x.s. iiij d [10 shillings and four pence]”. The vessel later featured in Tobias Smollett’s Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771): “A quaff; that is a curious cup made of different pieces of wood, such as box and ebony, cut into little staves.”
In 1958, the Scots Year Book devoted a few lines to, “Makers of Wooden Scottish Quaichs from drinking size suitable for St. Andrew Dinners and Burns Nicht, to large carved ones for prizes or presentation”. Ceremonial quaichs continue to be used in the twenty-first century as trophies for sports such as golf, shinty, rugby, and shooting.
In January 2003, the Scotsman included the following convivial image: “Talisker is my chosen dram… I’d serve it in a quaich that’s being continually passed around the table.”
In the present day, prominent supporters of the Scotch Whisky industry are inducted as honorary keepers of the quaich. Upon joining their ranks in October 2024, Sir Rod Stewart told the Sunday Mail: “I am absolutely over the moon to receive this award – it’s an honour and a privilege which I don’t take lightly. Thank you to the Keepers of the Quaich. Slàinte Mhath!”
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
