A History of the Shot Glass

Have you ever looked at the shot glass you are drinking from or measuring with and wondered its back story? There are a couple of reasons this miniature glass has earned its name. Check out a history of the shot glass to impress your friends at your next party or pub crawl!

The term first appears

Back in the 1940s, The New York Times was the first publication to use the term "shot glass" in print, although miniature glasses of about the same size were used for several centuries to sip grappa in Italy or throw back ouzo in Greece. Before then, such a glass was often called either a jigger or a pony, depending on the regional reference. Before Prohibition, many alcohol makers gave out promotional glasses in this same size, featuring advertisements etched on the side. These printed glasses are extremely popular with collectors today.

Why it was called a shot

No one really knows the exact reason these glasses are called shot glasses. Folklore has it that cowboys in the west would trade a bullet for a short drink or that this size glass was kept at the table in case an unlucky diner came across a bullet still embedded in his dinner. It is also possible that the phrase is a shortening of the term 'Schott glass' after a well-known glass expert and manufacturer operating in Germany in the late 1880s.

Wherever the term comes from, it has made its in the English language from the 1940s on. Today, many Americans of drinking age know the exact size of a single or double shot glass. Bottoms up!