stein

Definition

A beer mug, usually made of ceramic or glass.

Etymology

From a regional use of German Stein (“stone”). Probably a clipping of Steingut (“stoneware”) or Steinkrug (“stone pitcher”). Compare Old English stǣna (“stone jug, a pot of stone or earth”). Doublet of stone. More at stean.

Example Sentences

• "So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein—coloring and all. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams."
• "A gnome-size German civilian with a red von Hindenburg mustache is dispensing steins of what looks to be mostly head."
• "[…] those 50 grams of resin-soaked dope, which had been so potent that on the second day it had given him an anxiety attack so paralyzing that he had gone to the bathroom in a Tufts University commemorative ceramic stein to avoid leaving his bedroom,[…]"

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