the.com/ashtray
a tiny crematorium for habits you swore you'd quit by Monday
means a small dish or receptacle made to hold the ash and butts of cigarettes and cigars while they burn out.
from A plain English compound, exactly what it says: 'ash' from Old English 'æsce,' the powdery leftovers of fire, plus 'tray' from Old English 'treg,' a flat wooden board for carrying things. The word emerged once cigarettes became commonplace and people needed somewhere to flick the residue — a late-19th to early-20th-century coinage, riding the rise of the smoking habit.
- car staple
- Cars came with built-in ashtrays until the late 1990s
- car staple
- Now that slot holds spare change and forgotten gum
- weight reach
- Casino floor ashtrays once vanished as theft trophies
- smoke ban
- Public smoking bans turned them into nostalgic relics
- art object
- Mid-century glass ashtrays now fetch collector prices
fornasetti ceramics ashtray — italian designer piero fornasetti created iconic ceramic ashtrays with surreal face designs, produced since 1950s
mid-century modern ashtrays — peak cigarette culture 1950s-60s produced collectible designs by companies like rosenthal and royal doulton