monteith

See also: Monteith

English

Etymology

From the Scottish surname Monteith.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɒnˈtiːθ/

Noun

monteith (plural monteiths)

1. A large 18th-century punchbowl, usually of silver, fluted and scalloped.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, London: Grant Richards, page 46:

     In the taper-lit, perhaps pre-sixteeth-century room—a piece of Laughing and Triumphing needlework in the style of Rubens completely hid the walls—the capacious oval of the dinner-table, crowned by a monteith bowl filled with slipper-orchids, showed agreeably enough.

   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 509:

     The Punch is a secret Receipt of the Landlord, including but not limited to peach brandy, locally distill’d Whiskey, and milk. A raft of long Icicles broken from the Eaves floats upon the pale contents of the great rustick Monteith.

2. (obsolete) A cotton handkerchief with white spots on a coloured background.

Further reading

• Monteith in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)