cocktail English · revision 15239

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=compound|attested=1798}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈkɒk.teɪl/ ''(UK)''; /ˈkɑk.teɪl/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is apparently [[af|en|cock|tail]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) but the allusion is uncertain, and was obscure even to contemporaries.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) Hoad calls the drink sense of unknown origin.^(Hoad 1986) 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;^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021)^(NODE 1998) 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]]).^(Etymonline) Dialect cock, a drink, may also have had an influence.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A drink of spirits, water, sugar and bitters: 1798 in Etymonline;^(Etymonline) 1806, American English, in Barnhart, the OED and Merriam-Webster.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)^(MWU 2024) The horse with a docked tail is from the early 17th century in the New Oxford, by 1796 in Etymonline.^(NODE 1998)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A racing horse that is not a thoroughbred is from 1808,^(OED 1989) and a person who poses as a gentleman but lacks good breeding from 1854.^(OED 1989) The verb, to drink cocktails, is from 1856.^(OED 1989) In American English the name was applied to non-alcoholic appetizers, such as fruit cocktail (1928) and oyster cocktail (about 1938),^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) and since the 1900s to any mixture of substances, as a Molotov cocktail (1940).^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1798 – a mixed drink.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1806 – cocktail (US).^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1808 – a half-bred racehorse.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1928 – fruit cocktail.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1940 – Molotov cocktail.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A mixed alcoholic drink with a [[spirit]] base, often with fruit juice, usually drunk before a meal.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # An [[appetizer]] of seafood or mixed fruit: ''prawn cocktail''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A potent mixture of different elements: ''a cocktail of drugs''.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Suitable for semiformal occasions: ''a cocktail dress''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[atomic cocktail]]

+ * [[cocktail glass]]

+ * [[cocktail lounge]]

+ * [[cocktail party]]

+ * [[cocktail sauce]]

+ * [[cocktail table]]

+ * [[Molotov cocktail]]

+ * [[fruit cocktail]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cock]]

+ * [[tail]]

+ * [[mocktail]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}