A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a “mouth”. By contrast, a jar has a relatively large mouth or opening. Bottles are often made ofglass, clay, plastic, aluminum or other impervious materials, and typically used to storeliquids such as water, milk, soft drinks, beer, wine, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, ink, and chemicals. A device applied in the bottling line to seal the mouth of a bottle is termed an external bottle cap, closure, or internal stopper. A bottle can also be sealed by a conductive “innerseal” by using induction sealing.
The bottle has developed over millennia of use, with some of the earliest examples appearing in China, Phoenicia, Rome and Crete. The Chinese used bottles to store liquids. Bottles are often recycled according to the SPI recycling code for the material. Some regions have a legally mandated deposit which is refunded after returning the bottle to the retailer.
First attested in English 14th century, the word bottle derives from old French boteille, which comes from vulgar Latin butticula, itself from late Latin buttis meaning “cask”, which is perhaps the latinisation of the Greek βοῦττις (bouttis), “vessel”.
Since prehistoric times, bottle containers were created from clay or as phaltum sealed woven containers. Early glass bottles were produced by the Phoenicians; specimens of Phoenician translucent and transparent glass bottles have been found in Cyprus and Rhodes generally varying in length from three to six inches. These Phoenician examples from the first millennium BC were thought to have been used for perfume.