Shaped like a cup or bowl with curved sides; the past tense of cup, meaning to hold something gently in your hands curved together.
From Old English 'cuppe' (cup) plus the past tense suffix '-ed'. The word cup itself came from Latin 'cuppa', which may have Semitic origins. The sense of 'shaped like a cup' developed as a natural descriptor.
Cupped hands are one of the most universal human gestures—found in cultures worldwide for drinking, catching, and blessing. Interestingly, the cupped hand shape appears in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and in religious ceremonies across religions because it's instinctively connected to giving and receiving.
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