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Cocktail

Posted by ESC on July 23, 2000

In Reply to: Cocktail posted by Bob on July 23, 2000

: Can anyone give me the derivation of the word cocktail?

This is one of those words with several possible origins. I thought they used to decorate a drink with an actual feather. One source states that there are 50 explanations of the word "cocktail." Here are two.

"Dictionary of Word Origins" by John Ayto (Arcade Publishing, New York, 1990): "The origins of the word 'cocktail' are mysterious. It first appeared (in America)in the first decade of the 19th century, roughly contemporary with 'cocktail' meaning 'horse with a cocked tail' -- that is, one cut short and so made to stick up like a cock's tail -- but whether the two words are connected, and if so, how the drink came to be named after such a horse, are not at all clear."

Why You Say It: The Fascinating Stories Behind over 600 Everyday Words and Phrasesby Webb Garrison (Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, Tenn., 1992): Mr. Garrison agrees that there are several possible origins including one about "...the beautiful Aztec princess, Octel. She got tired of eating from golden dishes, so she scrounged around and found a drinking vessel made of glass. Beverages poured into her glass varied in color, and she mixed the ingredients to watch the swirling of liquid in the glass. That is why Octel gave her name to the cocktail. Shallow your drink -- not the yarn! Mixed drinks may be as old as mankind, but our title for them is modern. It is odd that at least fifty explanations for it have been offered. One of the best is from England, where the docked-tail of a horse was called a cock-tail..."

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