❗️HEADS UP❗️ This episode includes much alcohol talk 🍻 Rob and Jess are getting a round in at the bar in this episode crammed with boozy etymology. Let’s explore the origins of our words for beers, wines and spirits, and delve into the stories behind the names of cocktails.
🍺 Where does the word “beer” come from?
🍹 How did the “negroni” get its name?
🥴 How many words for “drunk” to Brits actually have?
Grab a nip of your favourite liquor, mix yourself a mocktail or pull yourself a pint, and enjoy another episode of Words Unravelled.
👂LISTEN: https://podfollow.com/words-unravelled-with-robwords-and-jess-zafarris
or search for “Words Unravelled” wherever you get your podcasts.
==LINKS==
Rob’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/robwords
Jess’ Useless Etymology blog: https://uselessetymology.com/
Rob on X: x.com/robwordsyt
Jess on TikTok: tiktok.com/@jesszafarris
#etymology #wordfacts #English
33 Comments
Your talk of "bridal" as "bride ale" = "bride party" reminds me of Sir Walter Scott's poem, "Lochinvar": “O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?” Your discussion of whiskey vs. whisky: whether it's been done retroactively, I know not, but I have heard it glossed as countries with an "e" spell it "whiskey" (Ireland, United States …), and those without an "e" spell their product as "whisky" (Scotland, Canada, Japan …)
Artemisia, worm wood, has many (bitter) anti-parasitic compounds. Throughout the world it has been used against intestinal parasites for hundreds of years.
In lieu of donating to this channel, I ordered a hardcover Words From Hell. Because I prefer to order hardcovers. And because I want to read it. Because I need to spend less time online. Because of current events. Because when US Democracy ends, Potato is going to have an army scouring books and choosing which ones are to be removed from the market. I call him Richard Potato because I don't like to say the other name.
I'm still watching, and you may have already covered this. I've had grappa a few times while travelling. Grappa is based on Italian grape stalk, which gets into both grape and stalk. Grape is related to grappling hook. Grappling hook comes up in several video games including Zelda and Wow. At first glance, stalk seems to be related to ladder parts, such as the rungs.
Scotch Pie, Scotch Beef, Scotch Mist …
Hey Rob, as a person who lives in Germany I would expect you to know that the plural of Schnaps is not Schnapses but Schnäpse 😉
I thought of "Hair of the dog" when they were discussing a Bloody Mary as a hangover cure.
A cotton gin is not a harvesting machine. It is a machine that separates cotton seeds from cotton fibers after the cotton has been harvested. Daiquiri, the village in Cuba, was the site of the U.S. Army's first landing in Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898. Re "Scotch," a group of people who emigrated to the 13 colonies were the "Ulster Scots," a.k.a. the "Scotch-Irish." Arriving without much cash, they tended to settle at the edge of the frontier, fighting with Indians (Native Americans) as well as with their neighbors. For a long time, they were the ethnic group that disproportionately fought America's wars. Notable Americans of Scotch-Irish ancestry include Presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and even Barack Obama.
Nip and Dram, but what about Snifter?
Drunk owl but no drunk as a lord.
I had to be careful typing that. It’s late and I’m wankered.
12:38 The term "moonshine" comes from the fact that alcohol was the first thing the US government taxed, therefore people started distilling their own alcohol at night in order to avoid paying taxes, as it was easier to hide it that way. Hence the name. As simple as that. The name was further reinforced by the restrictions that escalated for decades all the way to the prohibition, leading to more and more illegal distilleries, often hiding in the woods and operating at night.
Bucks fizz is named after where it was invented, The London Bucks Club, in 1921. The mimosa came later, invented in paris in 1925. Both include champagne and OJ, but differing quantities, a bucks fizz is 2:1, whereas a mimosa is 1:1
A liqueur is your standard spirir base that is sweetened by the addition of sugar, and then flavoured with the addition of flowers, herbs, fruit or other flavours.
Theyvalso have a much lower alcohol level, typically 15- 20pc abv
There is a comedy routine by Michael Mcintyre explorong synomyms for drunkeness, in which he cones up with some new ones
When running down the synonyms for blitzed (I'll self-censor here), you left out sh*t faced. This is one I hear a lot and I've always wondered about the history.
I don't know much middle English, just the first couple sentences of The Canterbury Tales, but the phrase "bathed every veyne in swich licour" comes to mind both for the vine/wine connection and because licour here refers to the morning dew and looks cognate with liquor to my "only looking at it and not actually doing the research" eye
Smaug is an epic costume!
Nice one. Still bot a ran, rather an argument on point, sir. 😅
You cane across somebody who tries to make his living by operating musical instruments…and other things making sounds.
You, on the other hand, are a musician. An artist. That's whay you (and me, btw…) get frustrated with such nonsense…
And: Of course we care. At least us who really love music. And music I am talking about music, made by real people in real instruments.
And then there's Pils…. Named after the city Pilzen, whose name derives from the hallucinogenic herb called Bilsenkraut in German. (Black henbane in english). And it's the addition of things like this that led to the Reinheitsgebot. Or beer purity laws.
Margarita is indeed a woman's name, but that is not the origin. There was a popular class of drinks in the late 1800s called "daises" which are a sour-style cocktail that's made with a base spirit, citrus juice, sweetener, and liqueur, and topped with soda water. In particular the brandy daisy was popular at the time. The drink migrated to Mexico where tequila was substituted for the brandy. The drink returned to the states bearing the name "margarita" which is simply Spanish for "daisy".
I've just noticed that my headphones are the same ones that Jess is wearing…
BTW in reference to the negroni…next time in the Netherlands try 'koffie verkeerd" aka 'wrong coffee'
Ardiente suggests “burning” vs “burnt”
I’m gonna start using “Irrespectless” irrespectless of your opinion
Have you ever done an episode on empty or meaningless or redundant words/phrases?
There must be a few in English – the one that irritates me a little is when people say “I’m going to go ahead and…”
As in, “I’m going to go ahead and get into my car. I’m going to go ahead and eat my lunch”. Etc
Why not just say, “I’ll get in my car or I’m going to eat my lunch.” The extra words add nothing to the sentence.
Which is the better modern translation?
"Water of Life“
or
"Lively Water"
Homonyms, homophones and homographs are not coincidences. They are word formations that have evolved somewhat differently through time and place but share the same origin in the proto-language of humankind. An example is "bear", the magnificent animal, that has been revered as a symbol of motherhood & strength in many cultures, and that represents the opposite sex in psychological tests. Since in our civilization there never has been equality of woman & man, it is obvious that the bear has been a symbol for woman, since it was the men who ruled the world and consequently the ones that created symbolisms in the past. And "surprisingly" (!) women have always been the ones that had to "bear": not only give birth but also endure inequality and its consequences: burdens, hardships, and all kinds of suffering.
Eli Whitney: "Honey, I invented the cotton gin!" His wife: "Who needs a fuzzy martini?" I personally credit gin and tonics with me not getting malaria…
Thank you being in my life.
Your content is why I'm grateful for youtube being a thing 🎉😂❤
Wooster-SHY-Err
It is not pronounced baijew. It is pronounced baijiou. When the communists wrote baijiu they didnt want to write three vowels in a row. Taiwan spells it baijiou.
It was suggested that "moonraker" came from the villagers pretending to rake up a wheel of cheese (or, as I heard the story, the Moon itself). It was also used as the highest sail on a ship which, from the point of view on deck was rubbing against the Moon. I suspect that usage was informed by the previous story though.
I suggest a buck's fizz would make a young buck (= a man about town) quite fizzy (= filled with energy and enthusiasm) as well as being a fizzy drink in it's own right.
But why are people "drunk as a lord" and also "sober as a judge"? What state is the Lord Chief Justice in?
Buck is a young man of a certain class. I believe it dates from the Regency period. Think dandy. It is champagne and OJ, not sparkling wine.