> Walk around Burton and everything is named after beer: Cooper this, Brewer that.
I recently learnt that a "cooper" is someone that makes wooden casks or barrels.
I recently learnt that a "cooper" is someone that makes wooden casks or barrels.
If I was to bet, cooper is probably an anglicized form of a brythonic language word. Any Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish or even Cumbric (int al) speakers hanging around here?
Etymonline says about "cooper": "either from Old English (but the word is unattested) or from a Low German source akin to Middle Dutch cuper, East Frisian kuper, from Low German kupe (German Kufe) "cask, tub, vat," which is from or cognate with Medieval Latin cupa."
Old English had the word "tunne" for barrel, hence "ton", which is a word widespread in many European languages and in Medieval Latin (e.g. French "tonne", Gaelic "tunna"), so it is uncertain where it comes from.
The word "barrel" was borrowed into English around 1300 from Old French.
"Cooper" from Middle Dutch "kūper" (container or tub) from Latin "cupa" (cask or tub).