the.com/punchbowl

means A large bowl, often with matching cups, used to mix and serve punch to a group at parties.

from Punch the drink is the older word here, borrowed from Hindi/Hindustani 'panch' meaning 'five' — a nod to the five original ingredients (spirit, water, lemon, sugar, spice) that sailors and traders brought back from colonial India in the 1600s. The bowl simply took its name from the drink it held: once punch became the fashionable party beverage of the 1700s, every respectable household needed a dedicated vessel to brew and serve it in, and 'punchbowl' followed naturally as the compound noun for that bowl.