calix

Latin calix (genitive calicis) meant a drinking cup, a goblet. It probably came from Greek kylix (a wide, shallow drinking cup used at symposia). The word entered Christian vocabulary because the Gospels describe Jesus at the Last Supper taking a cup (potērion in Greek, calix in Latin) and saying 'This is my blood.' The cup became central to Christian worship, and the word calix became chalice in English through Old French calice.

The chalice became the most sacred liturgical vessel in Christianity. Medieval chalices were made of gold, silver, or gilded silver, often studded with gems. The Ardagh Chalice (eighth century, Ireland) and the Antioch Chalice (sixth century, possibly earlier) are among the most famous surviving examples. Church law specified that chalices must be made of precious metal — a wooden or glass chalice was not permitted because the vessel holding Christ's blood must be worthy of its contents.

The phrase 'let this cup pass from me' (Matthew 26:39) — Jesus's prayer in Gethsemane — extended the chalice metaphor. The cup became a symbol of suffering, of fate, of what must be endured. 'To drink from the chalice' meant to accept suffering. The vessel that held wine held, metaphorically, destiny. The word absorbed the theology it contained.

Botanical calix gave English calyx — the cup-shaped part of a flower that holds the petals. The botanical and the liturgical uses of the Latin cup word coexist in English. A chalice holds wine. A calyx holds petals. Both are cups that protect something fragile and important. The flower and the sacrament share a word because they share a shape.