beer

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /bɪə/, US /bɪr/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ber,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English bēor (“strong drink, beer, mead”),^[2][4] a West Germanic word, cognate with Old Frisian biar, Middle Dutch and Dutch bier, Old High German bior and German Bier.^[2][4][5] Its origin is much disputed.^[2] It is probably an early (6th-century) monastic borrowing from Vulgar Latin biber (“a drink”),^[2][5][6] from bibere (“to drink”),^[2][7] from Proto-Indo-European *po(i)- (“to drink”);^[2] Barnhart finds the connection with bibere phonologically difficult,^[4] and another suggestion derives it from Proto-Germanic *beuwoz-, from *beuwo- “barley”.^[2] Old Norse björr is from West Germanic, and the native Scandinavian word, Old Norse ǫl, is cognate with English ale.^[4] It is related to beverage and imbibe.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An alcoholic drink made by fermenting malt: about 1000 in the OED.^[8] Old English bēor appears in Beowulf, and the Middle English form ber about 1225, in King Horn.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word is found in Old English but was rare outside poetry, and it seems to have become common only in the 16th century, as the name of a hopped malt liquor;^[2][8] it was probably reinforced from Low German when hopped drink was introduced.^[7] Ale, the usual earlier word, came to mean a drink made without hops, and a late 16th-century proverb runs “Turkey, heresy, hops, and beer came into England all in one year”.^[6] From about 1100 it was also applied to fermented drinks flavoured with other things, as ginger beer and root beer.^[8][9] Small beer, weak beer and figuratively a trifling matter, is recorded from 1532.^[8] In regional English dialect, beer was strong malt liquor, better than ale.^[10] The colloquial verb “to drink beer” is from 1780–6.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English bēor in Beowulf.^[4]
• c. 1000 – fermented malt liquor.^[8]
• c. 1225 – Middle English ber in King Horn.^[4]
• 1532 – small beer.^[8]
• 16th century – common as the name of hopped liquor.^[2][8]
• 1780–6 – verb, to drink beer.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An alcoholic drink brewed from malt and flavoured with hops.
2. A carbonated soft drink flavoured with roots or other plant parts: root beer, ginger beer.
3. Fermented mash.
4. A glass or bottle of beer.

Word family

• beery
• beerhouse
• beer and skittles
• beer belly
• beer garden
• beer hall
• bock beer

Related words

• ale
• beverage
• imbibe
• bib
• bibulous

Usage notes

Two rare words share the spelling: a weaving term for a set number of threads in a warp (1712), an alteration of bier,^[8][11][3] and “one who is or exists”, from be and -er (1382).^[8][11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press