[med.L. cibōrium in sense 1, in class. use ‘a drinking-cup,’ a. Gr. κιβώριον (a.) the cup-shaped seed-vessel or fleshy receptacle of the Egyptian water-lily, Nelumbium speciosum, (b.) a drinking-cup made from or resembling this seed-vessel. Sense 2 arose partly from confusion with sense 1, partly out of a mistaken derivation from L. cibus food (Ugutio, ‘ciborium vas ad ferendos cibos,’ Du Cange), in accordance with which it also occurs in med.L. as cibarium.
(The κιβώριον contained the ‘nuts’ or fruits called κύαμος αἰγύπτιος, faba ægyptiaca, or Egyptian beans; the rhizome or ‘root’ of the plant was called κολοκασία; both these names were also extended to the plant as a whole.)]
1. Arch. (see quots.)
1787. Archæol., VIII. 171. The Ciborium was the shell containing the seeds of the Colocasia or Egyptian bean … it was used as a drinking cup, and resembled our chalices or goblets. This inverted and suspended by its footstalk was similar to the canopy that covered those shrines; and in the beginning of the 5th century, as appears from Chrysostom, was thus understood, and at length expressed the pillars, curtains, canopy, and the whole shrine or tabernacle.
1838. J. Britton, Dict. of Archit. & Archæol., 79. Ciborium … an arched vault, or canopy raised over the high-altar.
1849. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, I. iii. 198.
1875. Dict. Chr. Antiq., I. 66. No ciborium now existing at Rome seems to be of earlier date than the 12th c.
1876. Gwilt, Encycl. Arch., 1214. The earliest known instance of a ciborium appears in the church of St. George at Thessalonica.
2. Applied to a receptacle for the reservation of the Eucharist. Of different forms; sometimes suspended from the roof or ciborium (sense 1), sometimes having the form of a temple or tabernacle, sometimes of a cup with an arched cover.
1651. Evelyn, Diary (1827), II. 33. I stept into ye Jesuites, who had this high day expos’d their Cibarium, made all of solid gold and imagerie.
1844. Pugin, Gloss., Ciborium … In form it nearly resembles a chalice with an arched cover.
1853. Cdl. Wiseman, Ess., III. 72. A very large ciborium of the same precious metal, but covered with diamonds and other jewels.
1889. Catal. Stuart Exhib., No. 322. Ciborium and cover of copper gilt, known as the ‘Cup of Malcolm Canmore.’
