Here’s to Friday, and to making it on the Lexiophile’s list of the Top 100 Language Blogs of 2009! Thanks to everyone who voted. Since it’s customary to raise a glass and toast in celebration, here is a language lovers list of the origins of common cocktails and spirits:

Cocktail

Cocktail is an interesting word with an obscure origin. The first recorded use was in 1803’s The Farmers Cabinet, and the first definition appeared in print in May of 1806 in a New York newspaper. The word is of American origin, and there are several competing theories about it’s etymology. Here are just a few of the interesting ones:

In the 18th century, it was a common practice for bartenders to drain the dregs of all the barrels and mix them together, serving the result (the equivalent of a bar-mat’s end of night remnants) at a reduced price. “Cock” was another name for spigot, and “tailings” is the last bit of alcohol, so this drink was called “cock-tailings,” shortened to “cocktail.”

Another story places the word’s origin squarely in 18th century New Orleans, where an apothecary named Peychaud (of bitters fame) served his guests a mix of brandy, sugar, water and bitters in an egg-cup. The drink eventually acquired the name of the egg-cup–”cocquetier” in French–which his guests shortened to “cocktay” and then “cocktail.” The French word “Coquetel” may also have had something to do with “cocktail”; it was the name of a mixed drink from Bordeaux served to French officers during the American Revolution.

What we know for sure is that cocktails are made from mixing liquor with some kind of juice or bitters, and that when mixed properly with great ingredients, they are delicious. So, here are the etymologies of the common spirits used in cocktails, followed by the story of some of our most popular mixes:

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Following up with our look at the origins of words related to food and spirits, here is a brief history of the language of beer:

One of the world’s oldest and certainly most well-loved beverages has a history that dates back thousands of years BC. Spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes, beer’s basic ingredients have not changed drastically from its Neolithic roots.

Along with a starch source such as barley and an ingredient to aid fermentation, such as yeast, beer contains a plethora of flavoring agents like fruits, honey, plants, spices, and most typically, hops. To help us gain a deeper enjoyment of this thirst-quenching beverage, we can examine the etymology of its components and the various kinds of beers that exist today.

The word “beer” most likely stems from a 6th-cenury Germanic loan from Latin. Monks – who were the first Europeans to brew beer – borrowed from the Latin bibere, meaning “to drink.” We can see traces of this usage in the English verb “imbibe.” Another version links beer with the Proto-Germanic word beuwo, meaning “barley.”

The two primary types of beer are lagers and ales. Ales are fermented and brewed at higher temperatures than lagers (a difference of about 20 degrees Fahrenheit) and use a different type of yeast. Ales are far more prevalent than lagers, and are characterized by a full-bodied flavor. The term “ale” stems from the Proto-Germanic aluth, meaning beer, and perhaps prior to that from the Proto-Indo-European alum, a word having connections to sorcery and magic. Lagers derive their name from the German Lager, meaning “storehouse.” Until the early 15th century, only the term “ale” was used to refer to beer of any sort.

Stouts, porters, and wheat beers are types of ales. Stouts, for their robust flavor, derive their name from the adjective designating something proud, valiant, and strong. Porter also derives its name from its strength, acquiring this title in the early 18th century due to being high in alcohol content and cheap – a favorite amongst laborers.

Here is a little something to get the weekend started: a brief walk through the language of wine.

The original nectar of the gods has a history – and therefore an etymology – that dates back to our ancient forbearers. Here you will find the sources of the popular names we use today for some of the more common intoxicating grapes.

PINOT NOIR
The “pinots” entered the English language in the early 20th-century from the French wine varietal of the same name. “Pinot” is a variation of the French pineau, from the prefix pin, or pine tree, and the diminutive feminine suffix –eau, and noir is French for the dark red, almost black color of the grapes. The varietal gets its name from the pinecone-shaped formation of grape clusters.

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
This cross between the Cabernet franc and the Sauvignon blanc grape developed in the 17th century in southwestern France. The “sauvignon” title is believed to be derived from the French sauvage, meaning “wild.” An ancient vintage, the Cabernet sauvignon may even have originated during the times of Pliny the Elder in Rome, where he wrote of the Biturca grape. This name bears resemblance to the “Petite Vidure” name used in the 18th century in France to refer to modern Cabernet.

MERLOT
This red wine varietal gets its name from the French Occitan word meaning “young blackbird.” Two components link the merlot grape with blackbirds, the first being the grape’s dark blue color, and the second being the bird’s propensity for eating grapes.

PINOT GRIGIO
This mutation of the Pinot noir grape gets its name from the French pin, meaning pine tree, and the suffix –eau, designating a cone from the pine tree. The varietal gets its name from its pinecone-shaped formation of grape clusters. The term “grigio” is Italian for gray, describing the grape’s grayish-blue coloring.

CHARDONNAY
Originating in the early 20th century, this grape is named after the town in France where the wine was first made. Before the grape varietal was recognized as “chardonnay”, it was already used in the French town of Chablis and known as Chablis wine. This term has a much older history, dating back to the 16th century where it was abbreviated from bois chablis, or deadwood, as a reference to grapes fallen due to high winds.

Related Articles

The Language of Beer
The Etymology of Cocktail
Pomegranates and Hand Grenades

Most people would agree that some languages have just the bon mot for a particular sentiment.

The English language has adopted many of these perfect expressions and incorporated them into everyday speech and writing.

Check out this list of words and a bit of the story behind how they made their way into English.

à la

If you are having a brownie with a scoop of ice cream on top, you are having a brownie à la mode, and you have the French to thank for the delicious treat. In French, à la means “in the style of”, with à la mode meaning “in the current style.” If a restaurant has an à la carte dining fashion, patrons are free to select from a fixed list of options on the menu, or carte.

amateur

Originally, to be an amateur meant to be a lover of something, from the Latin amare, meaning “to love.” The contemporary meaning of the term, meaning a non-professional practitioner of some pursuit, comes from the French. A similar term of Italian origin – dilettante – comes from the verb dilettare, meaning “to delight.”

armada

The term used to describe a large navy fleet made its way into English from the Spanish armada. The root arma, meaning “weapon,” described the heavily armed and protected Spanish ships. Similarly, the armadillo is a small “armored” creature thanks to its heavy outer shell.

banana

The name of this fruit comes from the Arabic ba’nana, meaning “fingers.”

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Most people are all too familiar with the tip-of-the-tongue sensation of trying to express what seems almost inexpressible. Perhaps you’ve felt the frustration of having the perfect word just beyond reach. Whether it’s some quality, sentiment, observation, or emotion, some descriptions are hard to come by.

To help Beyond Words readers overcome this unfortunate quandary, here are a few adjectives for words that pertain to other nouns:

Source:
The Phrontistery

The familiar marks that punctuate text – the periods, commas, semicolons, and so forth – have not always added their pauses and emphases throughout the history of the written word. Many of the texts that we now read with ease gained these marks centuries after being written with no punctuation at all. Additionally, punctuation rules vary from language to language and culture to culture, so that immaculate grammar and stringent rule-following in English does not equate to a good grasp of Russian or Chinese punctuation.

It took centuries for English to acquire its steadfast rules for punctuating texts. Here is just a brief look at some of the steps that led us to our present usage.

Period (.) Comma (,) Semicolon (;)

The period – or full stop – marks the end of a sentence. Though utilized for a variety of different purposes throughout the history of written language, the period gained its present use during the establishment of printing. Aldus Manutius the Elder, an Italian printer and publisher of the 15th century, is commonly credited with standardizing several elements of punctuation. Manutius also created the semicolon to introduce pauses in text and manipulated the already-existing virgule, or slash, into the modern comma, which gets its name from the Greek komma (κόμμα), meaning something that is cut off. Writers and scholars of the 16th- and 17th-centuries like William Tyndale, Ben Jonson, and Francis Bacon further encouraged the standardization of English punctuation by both recommending systematic usage and utilizing it in their own writings.

Exclamation mark (!)

The exclamation mark, which signifies surprise and was originally called the note of admiration, gains its name from the Latin Io, meaning joy. In its original usage, the letter “I” was written above the letter “O”, giving the appearance of a sign that looks like the modern-day exclamation mark.

Question mark (?)

The question mark, or note of interrogation, has a somewhat esoteric history. One version of the story dates the question mark to the 8th century, when it was described as a lightening bolt-shaped punctus interrogative used for similar purposes. Another version dates the question mark to the Middle Ages and the Latin term quaestiō;, meaning question. This word was abbreviated as “Qo” and eventually transformed into the modern symbol, which looks not unlike the cursive letter Q.

Most of us are familiar with the different types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. A distinctive sort of style, however, is the hallmark of internet phenomenon Marina Orlova. — she uses sex appeal to teach etymology.

Orlova, a 28-year-old Russian immigrant, is a philologist (a kind of linguist who specializes in the historical development of meaning in texts). In addition to holding two degrees from the State University of Nizhni Novgorod in Moscow, Orlova is a bombshell with a penchant for skimpy outfits and doe-eyed expressions. She has made her mark on the internet by capitalizing both on her education and her looks, introducing a slew of viewers to the field of philology by posing and pouting her way through educational clips.

In 2007, Orlova launched a YouTube channel called HotForWords in which she takes requests from viewers for familiar English words and phrases, then discusses their origins in short clips that typically involve equal parts spunk, sex, and etymology. Last year, Orlova was named World’s Sexiest Geek by the editors of Wired magazine. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that Orlova has acquired the title of #1 most viewed guru on YouTube – her videos receive more than a million views each week.

In her YouTube posts, Orlova explains colloquialisms like “three sheets to the wind” and “in the buff”, as well as rare words such as “mondegreen” and even one of the longest words in the English language –
“Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.”

Love her or hate her, the woman behind HotForWords holds an interesting place in the linguistic community. While sometimes flamboyant, Orlova deserves recognition for encouraging the study of language and raising interest in etymology through her trademark blend of bawdiness and scholarship.

As you might have guessed from the colorful dots and dashes above the Google search bar today, it’s Samuel Morse’s birthday. Morse code was created by the American painter and inventor in the early 19th century. Morse perfected his electromagnetic telegraph, and by 1836 transmitted the first long-distance message from Washington to Baltimore, which playfully read, “What hath God wrought?”

Morse’s telegraph machine was the first device to convey a messages using electricity; the composer coded the message and tapped it in telegraph key. Then, the telegraph converted the dots and dashes used in coding into electrical impulses carried through telegraph wires. Finally, the recipient of the telegraph received those electrical impulses already converted into dots and dashes on a paper tape.

Morse code played a fundamental role in the history of aviation as a form of plane-to-plane and plane-to-controller communication. The code itself may interest language lovers as one of the most useful international systems of writing and communication.

Though other forms of communication have replaced Morse code in aviation, the system of dots and dashes remains popular with amateur radio operators and aviation enthusiasts. For a look at Morse code, check out the alphabet below:

__________________________________________________________________________________________

For people who speak English as a second language, several pitfalls may stand in the way of communicating fluently with native speakers. Even with a firm grasp of English grammar and a full arsenal of vocabulary, correct native-level pronunciation remains an obstacle for many language learners.

For people whose professions demand a very high level of communication with native English speakers (such as healthcare workers, airline employees, public speakers, call-center operators, and IT professionals, to name a few) a heavy accent could become a barrier to success.

For the native English speaker, difficulty understanding someone’s accent often goes unmentioned for fear of making a co-worker, a professor, a doctor, or a customer service representative feel badly. However, those people who consistently hear the words, “I’m sorry, what was that?” or, “Could you please repeat that?” know that despite their hard work in mastering English, something is missing. Enter the field of professional accent reduction.

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