Chalice

Biography

A chalice (from Latin calix 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek κύλιξ (kylix) 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the cups used in Christian liturgy as part of a service of the Eucharist, such as a Catholic mass. These are normally made of metal, but neither the shape nor the material is a requirement. Most have no handles, and in recent centuries the cup at the top has usually been a simple flared shape. Historically, the same shape was used for elite secular vessels, and many individual examples have served both secular and liturgical uses over their history, for example the Lacock Cup and Royal Gold Cup, both late medieval cups. Cups owned by churches were much more likely to survive, as secular drinkware in precious metal was usually melted down when it fell out of fashion. The same general cup shape is also called a goblet (from Old French gobellet, diminutive of gobel 'cup'), normally in secular contexts. This remains current as a term for wineglasses and other stemware, most of which have a goblet shape, with Paris goblet as a trade term for basic rounded wineglasses. The modern French term gobelet has developed differently, and is used for different shapes such as the Gobelet André Falquet and Roman Lyon Cup, both stemless.

Bio from Wikipedia