brewery

Etymology

It is formed from English brewer + -ery,^[2][3] or, according to Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com and Etymonline, from brew and the same suffix,^[4][5][6] probably on the model of Dutch brouwerij.^[3][7] The verb brew comes from Old English brēowan,^[8][6] from Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (“to boil, bubble, effervesce”).^[6][8] Old English had brēawern (“brewhouse”), with ærn (“house”),^[6][9] and brewhouse remained the commoner word until the 18th century.^[6] The OED notes that brewery is not in Johnson's or Bailey's dictionaries.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place for brewing: 1648, in H. Hexham's Groot Woorden-boeck,^[2] the date Merriam-Webster also gives;^[4] the earlier OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated it 1658.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

From 1698 to the late 18th century the word also meant the process or trade of brewing, or brewers as a group; the Shorter Oxford finds this sense only in the 18th century.^[2][3] A figurative use appears in 1880.^[2] In American drug slang a brewery has been a place to buy and smoke opium, or a place where drugs are made.^[12]

Timeline

• 1648 – a place for brewing.^[2][4]
• 1698 – the trade or process of brewing (obsolete by 1796).^[2]
• 1880 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1959 – drug slang, a place to buy and smoke opium.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A building or plant where beer is made.^[4][13][11]
2. A business that brews beer for sale.^[2]
3. (obsolete, 1698–1796) The trade or process of brewing; also, brewers as a group.^[2][3]

Word family

• microbrewery

Related words

• brew
• brewer
• brewing
• brewhouse

Usage notes

According to Tréguer, the British slang phrase couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery means to be unable to organise even the simplest event; the OED's earliest example is from 1982, and he found one from 1980.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "Couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery", 13 January 2018