ORIGIN OF NAMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 133, 8 June 1939, Page 19

ORIGIN OF NAMES

CHAT FROM THE COCKTAIL

BAR

Have you ever wondered where we got the names of our various drinks? "Cider,", once spelt "cyder," comes from the Hebrew "shekar," meaning "strong drink," states an exchange. It first became popular in England at the time of Edward I. "Perry" is, as its nanrwa implies, just femented juice of pears. The word "gin" is short for •'Geneva," and is a misnomer, as the spirit has nothing to do with Geneva. The confusion in the name came about through the French name for juniper juice, "genievre." This was pronounced first "geneever," which was so like "Geneva" that "Geneva" was adopted for trade purposes either in ignorance or to conform wtih popular misconception. "Whisky" is "usquebaugh," Gaelic for "water of life." "Port" gets its name from "Oporto" in Spain, but "porter" from the London porters whose favourite drink this used to be. Muscat wines were brought from the East by the Crusaders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. "Sherry" was first made in Geres —Spain. Champagne was not known to the ancients. It was discovered by a Benedictine monk, Don Perignon, who first successfully bottled it in the seventeenth century. "Beer," from the German "bier," was first brewed by the Egyptian goddess Isis from barley, much as we brew it still. "Rum," derived from the Latin for sugar, "saccharum," was called "nimbulion" in the seventeenth century. The Devonshire term for an uproar is "rumpus." Sailors called the drink "rumbowling," which was shortened to "rumbo" and then rum.