noggin

Origin unknown. (Irish naigín, Scottish Gaelic noigean are both from English.) Compare nog. As a drink measure, perhaps related to naggin.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɑɡɨn/, /ˈnɑɡn̩/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnɒɡɪn/
• Rhymes: -ɒɡɪn

noggin (plural noggins)

1. A small mug, cup or ladle.
   • 1889, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Parson of Jackman’s Gulch

     Here Nat Adams, the burly bar-keeper, dispensed bad whisky at the rate of two shillings a noggin, or a guinea a bottle…

2. (dated) A measure equivalent to a gill.
   • 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

     I don’t know whether...you...ever...went out to a slight lunch of a bushel of oysters, a dozen or so of bottled ale, and a noggin or two of whiskey to close up with.

3. (slang) The head.
   • 2003, James D. Doss, Dead Soul

     Or maybe he bumped his noggin when he fell down—after he got clipped on the legs.

   • 2003, John Farris, The Fury and the Power

     She bumped her noggin on the bulkhead above the doorway, smiled in apology for her presumed clumsiness.

4. (biochemistry) A signalling molecule involved in embryo development, producing large heads at high concentrations.
5. (New Zealand) Alternative form of nogging (“horizontal beam”)

• OED 2nd edition 1989

• nig-nog, nignog