What does flasket mean?
A flasket is a small bottle or flask, particularly one intended for whisky, spirits, or another liquid. Today the word is chiefly associated with Scottish and northern British English and appears especially in Scottish writing, speech, and verse; elsewhere it can sound literary, archaic, or deliberately traditional. A flasket is a countable noun and normally has the plural flaskets. The standard expression “a flasket of whisky” shows its familiar use, while the word can also describe a small vessel for medicine or another liquid. It should not be treated as a general synonym for flask in present-day standard English: flask remains the usual word for a portable bottle, while flasket tends to suggest a smaller vessel or a regional usage. The term is worth knowing because it preserves both an ordinary object name and a strong Scottish association with whisky and literary tradition. Its history also connects it with a family of words for bottles that includes modern flask.
nounA small bottle or flask, especially one used to carry or serve whisky, spirits, or another liquid. The word is chiefly associated with Scottish and northern British usage.
- A small bottle or flask, particularly one used for whisky, spirits, medicine, or another liquid.
"The innkeeper brought out a flasket of whisky for the gathering."
"The innkeeper brought out a flasket of whisky for the gathering."
"He kept the old medicine in a small flasket by the window."
The standard plural is flaskets, and the noun is normally treated as countable.
"Several flaskets of whisky were set on the table."
A flasket is a smaller, distinctly Scottish cousin of a flask, especially evocative of whisky, country inns, and Scottish verse.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does flasket come from?
The word was borrowed into English from Old French flasquet, a diminutive of flasque, a term for a bottle. Its deeper source lies in the Latin flask family, represented in English by flask and continued in related forms such as flacon and flasque. In Scottish usage, flasket became especially associated with a small bottle for whisky or other spirits.
How flasket is actually used
The word is chiefly Scottish and northern British English. Outside those areas it may sound literary, archaic, or deliberately traditional; in general modern English, flask is the more usual term.
Easily confused with flasket
A flask is the usual modern term for a portable bottle, whereas a flasket is a smaller vessel and is now chiefly a Scottish or northern British usage.