sb. Forms: (3 schopin), 4 chopyn, 6 choppyne, choppen, 7–8 choppin, chopine, 7– chopin, 8– Sc. chappin. [? a. F. chopine an old measure = half a pint; f. chope ‘a kind of vessel containing about half a litre,’ identified by Littré with mod.Ger. schoppen, LG. schopen a liquid measure of the same amount.]
a. ‘A French liquid measure containing nearly a pint of Winchester’ (J.), i.e., half an Old French pinte. b. A Scotch liquid measure, equal to a Scotch half-pint, or about a quart of English wine-measure.
1275. Mun. Gildhallæ, Lond. (Rolls), III. 432. Mensuræ quæ vocantur ‘schopinas’ et ‘gilles.’
1388. Wyclif, 1 Kings vii. 26, marg. A sextarie is as a chopyn of Pariys.
1426. Sc. Act Jas. I. (1597), § 70. Twa gallownes and a halfe, and a choppen of the auld mette.
1608. Armin, Nest Ninn. (1880), 17. Meate was brought and layde by him, and a Choppin of Wine (for so they call it there).
1611. Cotgr., Chopine, a chopine; or the Parisien halfe pint; almost as big as our whole one.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., vi. 59. My Landlord … brought up a chopin of Whitewine.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., III. 3 Sept. They … call for a chopine of two-penny.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 214. A chopin (two English pints) of new milk.
1823. Galt, R. Gilhaize, II. 217 (Jam.). On this night … they hae a chappin.
1837. in Fifesh. Advert., 21 Sept. (1888), 4/5. 61/2 bolls of meal, 3 chopins of milk.
c. 1850. G. Millswood, New Fam. Receipt Bk., 57. One teaspoonful of this liquid to a choppin of water.
b. attrib.
c. 1520. Dunbar, Poems, Rycht airlie, 26. Owt of ane choppyne stowp They drank twa quartis.
1749. Lett., in Soc. Life former Days (1865), 101. A man was to go into a chopin bottle and there play on the fiddle!
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., I. 160. Chopin bottles were sold at 4s. 6d. per dozen.
Hence † Chopin v., ad. F. chopiner to tipple.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xviii. Chopining and plying the pot. Ibid., II. xxx. We tipled and chopined together.
