Dictionary

elf-cup en · NOUN

Meanings

1. Any of various species of fungus with a cup-shaped sporocarp, such as scarlet cup, Sarcoscypha coccinea.
   • Many toadstools are dainty enough to deserve their popular names: "Pixies' parasols," "Fairies' bath," "Elf cups," and so on. 1936 March 21, The Weekly Times, Melbourne, page 43, column 5:
   • Elf-cups; All terrestrial species; all seasons; (poor eating of themselves). 1887, William Delisle Hay, The Fungus-hunter's Guide, and Field Memorandum-book, London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowry and Co., page 156:
2. (UK, dialectal) A stone with a hole pierced by dripping water.
   • HOLY-STAAN, A stone with a natural hole in it, which was frequently suspended by a string from the tester of a bed, or from the roof of a cow house, as an infallible prevention of injury from witches!! In Scotland these stones are called elf-cups. 1828, William Carr, The Dialect of Craven, volume I, London: William Crofts, page 232:
3. A cup-shaped depression in the stonework of a Neolithic monument.
   • Elf cups are often found in Sweden on the covering blocks of our dolmens. The dolmens belong in Sweden exclusively to the Stone-age, but I am not quite sure if the cup-marks on them can be ascribed to so high an antiquity. The cup-bearing blocks could be visible in other prehistoric periods as they are to-day, and in that way they do not necessarily belong to the times of erection of the dolmen itself. 1880 May 14, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, page 90:
   • Rude pillars of Neolithic age with the little cup-shaped hollows mentioned above, occur all over the Continent, from the Pyrenees to Scandinavia, and are known as "fairy-cups," "elf-cups," marmites du diable, and "stones of the dead". 1881 May 14, The Leader, Melbourne, page 3, column 2:

Forms