Wine Glass Holders

A shot glass is a small glass designed to hold or measure liquor, to be poured into a mixed drink, or drunk straight from the glass (a "shot"). more...

The modern thick-walled shot glass probably originated in the United States during the Prohibition era, and the term "shot glass" or "shotglass" first appeared in print in the 1940s.

Jigger or pony is an earlier name for a container used to measure or drink a standard quantity of liquor. A small glass holding a shot of liquor is called a whiskey. American distilleries distributed thin whiskey glasses bearing etched advertising between the late 19th century and the beginning of Prohibition. Shot glasses decorated with a wide variety of advertising, humorous pictures, and toasts are popular souvenirs and collectibles. Pre-prohibition whiskey glasses are also highly collectible.

In Italy, the shot glass has been used for over 200 years, very popular in taverns for tasting grappa. Grappa is sipped from the shot glass, not downed in one gulp.

Origin

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word shotglass first appeared in print in the 1940s. There are many apocryphal stories about its origin, but none of them stand up to scrutiny. They all place the origin at least decades before the word or phrase shows up in print; or they describe an item that had nothing to do with drinking liquor. If any of them are true, the word should have appeared in print long before it did.

Many references from the 1800s describe giving workers who were digging canals a jigger of whiskey or rum. Most shotglasses are found in America, and shotglasses from before the 1940s are very rare. The word shotglass (or phrase shot glass) does not show up in print until the 1940s in The New York Times, in a story about an effort to regulate the size of a shot of liquor in New York; and did not come into common usage until much later.

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