What does cuspidor mean?
A cuspidor is a receptacle designed for spitting into, usually a squat, open bowl of metal, ceramic, or porcelain set on the floor or mounted near a wall. The word entered English from Portuguese, where it derives from verbs meaning 'to spit'. Cuspidors were ubiquitous fixtures of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, standing in hotel lobbies, railway cars, courtrooms, saloons, and private parlors, since widespread tobacco chewing made public spitting routine. Public-health campaigns against tuberculosis and changing manners eventually eliminated them, and few remain in daily service. Today the word is encountered mainly in historical writing, museums, and the antiques trade, where decorative brass and china examples are collected. It is essentially synonymous with the more colloquial 'spittoon', though it carries a somewhat older, more formal register.
nounA cuspidor is a receptacle for spitting into, typically a bowl-shaped vessel made of metal or ceramic and kept on the floor or attached to a wall. It is the term now most often used by collectors and antique dealers for what was commonly called a spittoon.
- A bowl-shaped receptacle for spit, especially one made of metal or porcelain and placed on the floor or against a wall in public buildings, trains, or homes.
"The Victorian hotel lobby still displayed a brass cuspidor beside the reception desk, polished to a mirror shine."
"In the corner of the barbershop sat a gleaming nickel-plated cuspidor, scrubbed clean each morning."
"Museums of the American West often display ornate cuspidors alongside spittoons as relics of nineteenth-century public life."
Regular plural formation; used when referring to multiple vessels, e.g. in collections or historical inventories.
"The museum's collection includes a dozen ornate cuspidors from the Gilded Age."
Before indoor plumbing and anti-spitting campaigns, elegant brass cuspidors stood in every hotel lobby and saloon corner — today they're prized antiques that can sell for hundreds of dollars.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cuspidor
Cuspidor comes from the Portuguese 'cuspidor', meaning 'spitter', formed from the verb 'cuspir' ('to spit'), which descends from the Latin verb 'conspuere'. The word was adopted into English in the eighteenth century to describe vessels for receiving spit, particularly those influenced by Portuguese design. Its deeper root connects it to other spitting-related words derived from Latin 'spuere', such as 'expectorate' and 'sputum'.
How cuspidor is actually used
Now largely historical; the word survives chiefly among antique collectors, museums, and writers evoking the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The more familiar everyday name was simply 'spittoon', with 'cuspidor' carrying a slightly older, more formal flavor.
Easily confused with cuspidor
A cuspid is a pointed canine tooth, whereas a cuspidor is a vessel for spitting into; the two share an etymological link through 'cusp'/'spitting' roots but mean entirely different things.