teacup and saucer
- noun
- /ˈtiːˌkʌp ənd ˈsɔːsər/
:
taza y platillo
- Evelyn carefully placed the teacup and saucer down, making sure it didn't clink against the fine china.
Examples
-
Audrey's hand trembled as she lifted her teacup and saucer.
Fiction book (1993) -
Audrey's hand trembled as she lifted her teacup and saucer to take a sip of tea.
-
The teacup and saucer on the table were beautifully decorated with intricate patterns.
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward combination of the concrete nouns 'teacup' and 'saucer' linked by the coordinating conjunction 'and', so its meaning — the cup together with its matching saucer — is directly recoverable from the parts. This composition follows normal noun coordination patterns found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.
Etymology
Teacup and saucer names the small cup (teacup) and the flat dish (saucer) that are always used together. The saucer catches drips and holds a spoon, so the phrase came to mean a 'matching set' of cup and dish.