A jug is a type of

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

commonly used to hold and serve liquids, but not normally to drink from directly. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and usually a pouring lip. Jugs throughout history have been made of metal, ceramic, or glass, and plastic is now common. In

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

, jugs are pouring vessels for holding drinkable liquids, whether beer, water or soft drinks. In

North American English North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar ...

these table jugs are usually called

pitchers In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws (" pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Ewer In American English, a pitcher is a container with a spout used for storing and pouring liquids. In English-speaking countries outside North America, a jug is any container with a handle and a mouth and spout for liquid – American "pitchers" wi ...

is an older word for jugs or pitchers, and there are several others, such as

flagon A flagon () is a large leather, metal, glass, plastic or ceramic vessel, used for storing and pouring drink, whether this be water, ale, or another liquid. They are generally not intended to be drunk from directly, like a cup. A flagon is typica ...

. Several other types of containers are also called jugs, depending on locale, tradition, and personal preference. Some types of

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal ...

s can be called jugs, particularly if the container has a narrow mouth and has a handle. Closures such as stoppers or

screw cap A screw cap or closure is a common type of closure for bottles, jars, and tubes. History Screw caps had been used in Europe since the 1500s and a British patent was filed in 1810 by Peter Durand acting on behalf of Nicolas Appert. John Lan ...

s are common for these retail packages.

Etymology

The word jug is first recorded in the late 15th century as ''jugge'' or ''jubbe''. It is of unknown origin, but perhaps comes from ''jug'' a term for a maidservant, in the same period. This in turn comes from the alteration of common personal names such as Joan or Judith.

Beer

In certain countries, especially New Zealand and Australia, a "jug" refers to a plastic container filled with two imperial

pint The pint (, ; symbol pt, sometimes abbreviated as ''p'') is a unit of volume or capacity in both the imperial and United States customary measurement systems. In both of those systems, it is one-eighth of a gallon. The British imperial pint ...

s (just over a

litre The litre ( Commonwealth spelling) or liter ( American spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metres (m3). A ...

) of

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

. It is usually served along with one or more small glasses from which the beer is normally consumed, although in some

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

bars it is more common for the beer to be drunk directly from the jug, which is usually served without the accompanying glass. (In the U.S., this may be called a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

—although few US pitchers are as small as a

, generally holding between 64 and 128 U.S.

fluid ounce A fluid ounce (abbreviated fl oz, fl. oz. or oz. fl., old forms ℥, fl ℥, f℥, ƒ ℥) is a unit of volume (also called ''capacity'') typically used for measuring liquids. The British Imperial, the United States customary, and the United S ...

s, approximately 2-4 litres. In New Zealand and Australia a pitcher sometimes can refer to a much larger measure of beer.) In Britain in those parts of the country where there is a choice between a pint (20 fluid ounces) tankard and a straight glass of beer, a tankard may be called a tankard or a "jug". A jug of beer may also refer to a jug containing larger amounts (usually sized in pints), but if a large jug is sold it will be advertised as such in the pub and this helps to reduce confusion.

Music

In American folk music, an empty jug (often

stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...

used for

American whiskey American whiskey is whiskey (a distilled beverage produced from a fermented mash of cereal grain) produced in the United States. American whiskeys made from mashes with at least 51% of their named grains include bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, r ...

) is sometimes used as a musical instrument, being played with buzzed lips to produce a

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

-like tone. It is often part of a

jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...

, to which ensemble it lends its name.

Examples

In addition to the typical definition, a variety of other containers designed for carrying liquid are sometimes called "jugs". File:WHISKEY JUG WITH BEAR.JPG,

Stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...

whiskey jug File:Hamilton and Inches Claret jug.jpg, Hamilton and Inches

silver claret jug A silver claret jug is a wine Jug (container), jug made of glass, typically with some silver, for claret, which is the British name for French red Bordeaux wine, and other wines, especially reds. Matured red wines, including claret, throw a dep ...

, Edinburgh 1902 File:Somerset Cider Jugs (2518375463).jpg, A set of

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

jugs used for holding

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the Fermented drink, fermented Apple juice, juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest ...

, manufactured in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England File:DublinSterlingSilverHotWaterJug.jpg, Silver hot water jug, Dublin c1770, using a coffee-pot shape with a higher base. File:Bartmen (5159258939).jpg, Two 17th-century German

Bartmann jug A Bartmann jug (from German ', "bearded man"), also called a Bellarmine jug, is a type of decorated salt-glazed stoneware that was manufactured in Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Cologne region, in what is today ...

s File:Refilling 18L water jug bottled water 5219.JPG, 18 L refillable plastic water jug, typically used in

water cooler A water dispenser, sometimes referred to as a water cooler (if used for cooling only), is a machine that dispenses and often also refrigeration, cools or heats up water with a refrigeration unit. It is commonly located near the restroom due to c ...

s File:Milk jug upright.jpg, Blow molded plastic bottle of milk, often called a milk jug in America File:64 fluid ounce Growler style beer bottle in brown glass with a screw top cap.jpg, A growler beer bottle or “jug” File:Glass juglet with vertical ribbing MET DP141682.jpg, Roman glass juglet with vertical ribbing. 2nd half of 1st century C.E. File:Enamel wash basin and jug, South Africa.jpg, Enamel

wash-basin A sink (also known as ''basin'' in the UK) is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have a tap (faucet) that supplies hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faster ...

and ewer File:Portugal. (A man carrying a jug.) - NARA - 541753.jpg, Man with a jug, Portugal, 1950 File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art gls 0587.jpg, alt=Jug that is pale green glass with bluish-grey tinge; mould-blown, trail-decorated and tooled. Decoration consists of a row of six figures with prominent headdresses or haloes, one on each facet of the body. The figures are represented in frontal view, standing with their arms by their sides, each holding an object. They are dressed in knee-length garments, their legs somewhat apart and their feet shown from the side. Some of the figures may be musicians – two hold what appear to be flutes – but the remaining objects are not clear enough to be identifiable, Syro-Palestinian coast, or possibly Egypt. 8th-11th century AD.

Khalili Collection The Khalili Collections are eight distinct art collections assembled by Nasser D. Khalili over five decades. Together, the collections include some 35,000 works of art, and each is considered among the most important in its field. Among these ...

. File:Old Kingdom jug with hippos.jpg, An

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

jug featuring galloping hippos in the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world. It houses over 120, ...

References

External links