rummer

Pluralrummers

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A large drinking glass, usually on a short or heavy stem, used for alcoholic drinks and especially wine.

   He raised his rummer and proposed a toast to the newlyweds.

   The collector displayed a row of engraved rummers from the Georgian era.

   Similargoblet

   Note

   A glass named for Rome, not for rum: the word comes partly from Dutch roemer and partly from German Römer, "Roman person or thing," after glassworks dating from the Roman era. It held more than wine. James Boswell, in his journals for 1793, regaled himself with "rummers of punch." It shares only its spelling with the comparative of "strange", which grew from a different word entirely.

2. 2
   adjective

   Comparative form of rum. Dated British informal.

   The deeper they dug, the rummer the case became.

   Nothing could be rummer than the note left on the doorstep.

   Note

   Only the adjective rum forms this comparative. In practice that means the "strange, peculiar" rum of dated, informal UK speech, since the older sense "fine, excellent" is obsolete. The final m doubles before -er, as in slim and slimmer. The spirit is a noun, so this word never means "containing more rum," and it is unrelated to the drinking glass of the same spelling.

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