Now chiefly Sc. Forms: 5–9 tasso, 6 tais, tas, 6– tass. (a. OF. tasse goblet (1380 in Godef.), in mod.F. cup = Pr., Cat., med.L. tassa (1337 in Du Cange), Sp. taza, Pg. taça, It. tazza, app. a. Arab. ṭass, ṭassah basin, usually held to be ad. Pers. tast cup, goblet.] A cup or small goblet, esp. one of silver or the like; the contents of this; a small draught of liquor.
c. 1483. Caxton, Dialogues, 21. Pawteners, tasses [Fr. Aloyeres, tasses], Coffyns and penners.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XIII. ix. 25. The cowpis greit and drynkyn tassis fyne.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvii. 145. To drynk vattir … in ane glas, or in ane tasse of siluyr.
1583. Leg. Bp. St. Androis, Pref. 136. We toome a tass of wyne.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. li. Great antick vessels, huge pots,… big tasses.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., III. ii. Elspa, haste ye,… And fill him up a tass o’ usquebæ.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xviii. A tass of brandy or aquavitæ, or sic-like creature comfort.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Tass, a dish or a dram; as a tass of tea, or a tass of brandy.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., liv. A little tass of Cherry brandy!
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, 321. Scottish stone-ale, ‘virulent as a tass of raw brandy.’
