According to DWB, a Bitsche is a "wooden drinking vessel with a lid" (cf. DWB under Bitschen). Schmeller lemmatises it as Butschen or Bütschen and further describes it as a "small vessel in the form of a truncated cone, provided with a handle and a lid, which is used by numerous household servants as a convenient and durable drinking vessel" (cf. Schmeller under Butschen). Both the Grimms' DWB and Schmeller's Bavarian Dictionary cite mainly Slavic examples as comparable word types in other languages: Polish beczka, Czech bečka Russian botschka. botschka 'skid, barrel'.
The DWB assumes that the Slavic words evolved from the German Bottich. For the Bottich, on the other hand, Kluge states that it was "certainly borrowed from the Romanic area". However, it assumes a short form of the word apothēca 'wine cellar' as etymon (cf. Kluge under Bottich), although it also states that the word is originally Upper German. For the Bitsche itself, however, another etymology comes into question. In the Treccani article on bottìglia (cf. Treccani under bottìglia), the late Latin bŭ(t)ticŭla, a diminutive of buttis 'barrel', is given as the etymon. Butsch also exists in Swiss German dialects (cf. Idiotikon under Butsch) and the Idiotikon mentions Romansh butschin as a cognate corresponding to ita. botticino. If one assumes a long-distance assimilation of the root vowel through the /i/ and a later raising of /y/ to /i/, which is typical in Bavarian, Bitschn as it is mainly found in derviates such as Millibitschn (cf. Map Milchbitsche) could be explained in this way.