fizz

Etymology

It is imitative of the sound.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED compares fizzle and the earlier noun fise,^[2] and Barnhart thinks it perhaps related to it,^[4] which Dictionary.com takes as its source by back-formation.^[8] Partridge suggests influence from Old Norse fīsa (“to break wind”),^[9] and Klein compares it with that word, Danish fise and German fisten.^[10] The noun is from the verb.^[2][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Used transitively, to cause to fizz: 1665, in Charles Cotton's Scarronnides; this use is recorded only in the mid 17th century.^[2][6] Barnhart dates the verb to 1665 in the sense to move with a hiss or sputter,^[4] and Etymonline to the 1660s.^[5] The intransitive sense, to make a hissing or sputtering sound, follows in 1685, in John Crowne's Sir Courtly Nice,^[2] the date Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives for its first sense.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The earliest noun sense was not a sound but a disturbance or fuss, from before 1734 in Roger North;^[2][12] the Shorter Oxford calls it long rare or obsolete,^[6] though American and Scots dialect kept fizz for a hurry or a state of agitation.^[13] The hissing sound itself is recorded from 1812, in the Smith brothers' Rejected Addresses,^[2][4][5] and the sense of high spirits or "go" from 1856, in Harriet Beecher Stowe.^[2] From 1864 fizz meant an effervescent drink, especially champagne, and later any sparkling drink;^[2] Etymonline and the New Partridge give the same date for the drink.^[5][14] Merriam-Webster also records it for a tall mixed drink of spirits, soda water and lemon juice, as in gin fizz.^[11] Etymonline explains the drink sense from the sound it makes.^[5] In the First World War it was also used of a whizz-bang shell (1916).^[2] The verb took on fizz out, to fade away, from 1847,^[2][6] and could mean to show strong excitement.^[11] Australian slang had a separate fizz, an informer, shortened from fizgig.^[15]

Timeline

• 1665 – transitive, to cause to fizz (only in the 17th century).^[2][6]
• 1685 – to make a hissing or sputtering sound.^[2][11]
• before 1734 – noun, a disturbance or fuss.^[2]
• 1812 – noun, a hissing sound.^[2][4][5]
• 1847 – fizz out, to die away.^[2]
• 1856 – liveliness, high spirits.^[2]
• 1864 – an effervescent drink, especially champagne; to move with a fizzing sound.^[2][5]
• 1916 – a whizz-bang shell.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a hissing or sputtering sound: The fuse fizzed and went out.^[11][16][2]
2. Of a drink, to give off bubbles of gas; to effervesce.^[16][11]
3. To show strong excitement or high spirits: The kitchen fizzed with gossip.^[11]
4. fizz out: to fade away or fail.^[2][6]

Noun

1. A hissing or bubbling sound.^[16][11][2]
2. The bubbly quality of a drink; effervescence.^[16]
3. Liveliness or high spirits.^[11][2]
4. (informal) An effervescent drink, especially champagne or another sparkling wine.^{[16][11][2][14]}
5. A tall drink of liquor, soda water and lemon juice, often sweetened: a sloe-gin fizz.^[11]

Word family

• fizzy
• fizzer

Related words

• fizzle

Usage notes

In New Zealand fizz is also a soft drink, and a fizz-boat a small motor boat.^[6][17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
14. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press