cocktail

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkɒk.teɪl/ (UK); /ˈkɑk.teɪl/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is apparently from English cock + tail,^[2][3] but the allusion is uncertain, and was obscure even to contemporaries.^[2][4] Hoad calls the drink sense of unknown origin.^[5] One explanation derives it from cocktail, a horse with a docked tail that sticks up like a cock's, by 1796, extended to a horse of mixed pedigree, not a thoroughbred, and so to a mixed drink;^[4][6][7] David Wondrich prefers the idea of a drink that ‘cocks up your tail’, a stimulant, since the 1798 reference calls the drink ginger (compare feague).^[4] Dialect cock, a drink, may also have had an influence.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A drink of spirits, water, sugar and bitters: 1798 in Etymonline;^[4] 1806, American English, in Barnhart, the OED and Merriam-Webster.^[2][8][3] The horse with a docked tail is from the early 17th century in the New Oxford, by 1796 in Etymonline.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

A racing horse that is not a thoroughbred is from 1808,^[8] and a person who poses as a gentleman but lacks good breeding from 1854.^[8] The verb, to drink cocktails, is from 1856.^[8] In American English the name was applied to non-alcoholic appetizers, such as fruit cocktail (1928) and oyster cocktail (about 1938),^[2][8] and since the 1900s to any mixture of substances, as a Molotov cocktail (1940).^[4][2]

Timeline

• 1798 – a mixed drink.^[4]
• 1806 – cocktail (US).^[2][8]
• 1808 – a half-bred racehorse.^[8]
• 1928 – fruit cocktail.^[2][8]
• 1940 – Molotov cocktail.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A mixed alcoholic drink with a spirit base, often with fruit juice, usually drunk before a meal.
2. An appetizer of seafood or mixed fruit: prawn cocktail.
3. A potent mixture of different elements: a cocktail of drugs.

Adjective

1. Suitable for semiformal occasions: a cocktail dress.

Word family

• atomic cocktail
• cocktail glass
• cocktail lounge
• cocktail party
• cocktail sauce
• cocktail table
• Molotov cocktail
• fruit cocktail

Related words

• cock
• tail
• mocktail

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press