kugel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkuːɡl̩/
ipa: /ˈkuɡ(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈkʊɡ(ə)l/
rhymes: -uːɡəl
rhymes: -ʊɡəl
Forms: form: kugels
Etymology: Borrowed from German Kugel (“ball; (geometry) sphere”), from Middle High German kugel (“ball; globe”); further etymology uncertain.
Senses: examples: text: Along one wall of the Motts' home is an array of kugels, or glass balls, antique forerunners of today's classic $3.99-a-dozen-at-the-local-drugstore ornaments. However, unlike those made today, antique kugels are considerably sturdier and served as more than just decorations. Kugels decorated the house year-round and were known as "witches' balls." It was believed that if a witch were to visit it and see her face in one, the distorted image created by the rounded glass would scare her away.
ref: 1990 December, John Morell, “OC Style: Yuletide Collectibles”, in Orange Coast: The Magazine of Orange County, volume 16, number 12, Costa Mesa, Calif.: O.C.N.L., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60, columns 2–3:
text: Lauscha [in Thuringia, Germany] began, early in the nineteenth century, to produce reflective panorama balls or "witches' balls" for window and garden decorations. The first recorded order for smaller, Christmas-tree versions of these thick-walled "kugels," silvered on the inside with compounds of zinc or lead, dates from 1848. And, although kugel means "ball," relatively early examples of the type took on precisely the shapes noted by Harper's Bazaar, including mushrooms (a German good luck symbol), clusters of grapes, and acorns. Kugels were factory products, made in a glass kiln. But the thin-walled balls and mold-blown ornaments imported to the United States in large quantities in the 1880s were made in peasants' cottages, with whole families engaged in the year-round enterprise.
ref: 2000, Karal Ann Marling, “The Christmas Business”, in Merry Christmas! Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 76:
text: Some of the glass ornaments you might find in a family's collection could date back to the 1870s, when the first glass ornaments, similar to the ones we know today, were imported into Britain from Lauscha, Germany. Silver glass orbs called kugels were manufactured there as well. Because of the cost of these exotic glass ornaments, owning them was often considered a symbol of status. However, by the 1880s, kugels were being imported en masse; in the United States, they were even sold through five-and-dime stores.
ref: 2005 November–December, Roseann Reinemuth Hogan, “Unwrapping the Glitz of Christmas”, in Loretto Dennis Szucs, editor, Ancestry Magazine, volume 23, number 6, Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 51–52:
text: • Original ‘Kugels’ are made of very heavy glass, too heavy for Christmas tree branches. / • The colour of the ‘Kugel’ is decorated from inside the ornament (the lining) unlike modern ones which are blown coloured glass.
ref: 2009, Tracy Martin, “Desirable Decorations”, in Christmas Collectables, Barnsley, South Yorksire: Remember When, Pen & Sword Books, →ISBN, page 41:
glosses: A traditional hanging ornament of German origin made of coloured glass, usually spherical but also produced in other shapes such as bunches of grapes and drops.
Related terms: kugel fountain