The origin of the word "Cocktail"

[davebg 0]

Suprisingly, it has nothing to do w/your cawk or her tail. Who knew?

There are as many proposed origins for the word as there are girlie-drinks in a fern bar. The first recorded use of "cocktail" was in 1806, and it seems fairly accepted that it is of American origin. Here's a rundown of some of the more likely etymologies.

 

Supposedly, bartenders used to drain the dregs off all the barrels and mix them together, serving the resultant muddle at a reduced price. "######" was another name for spigot, and "tailings" is the last bit of alcohol, so this drink was called "######-tailings," quickly shortened to "cocktail." A similar theory claims that leftover liquors from drinks served were dumped into a ceramic container shaped like a rooster, and you could get cheap drinks from a tap set in the tail of the rooster; hence these drinks were called "######'s tail."

 

A popular story with mixologists is that in New Orleans, an apothecary named Peychaud (of bitters fame) occasionally served his guests a mix of brandy, sugar, water and bitters in an egg-cup. The drink eventually acquired the name of the egg-cup--"cocquetier" in French--which his guests shortened to "cocktay" and then "cocktail." The French word "Coquetel" may also have had something to do with "cocktail"; it was the name of a mixed drink from Bordeaux served to French officers during the American Revolution.

 

Some claim that doctors once would treat throat problems with a pleasant-tasting medicine applied to the tip of a feather from a ######'s tail; then when people started to drink or gargle the medicine outright, the name "######'s tail" was still used.

 

One story alleges that a doctor in ancient Rome made a wine-based mixed drink that he called "cockwine" that was our modern cocktail's predecessor. Supposedly, Emperor Lucius Aurelius (180-192 A.D.) was quite fond of it.

 

The simplest theory I found (though no more likely to be true for all that) is that it referred to the fact that a potent drink will "###### your tail," i.e., get your spirits up.

 

Another possibility incorporates the fact that "######-tail" was once a term for a non-thoroughbred horse. Their tails were bobbed, or "cocked" to distinguish them from their purebred brethren. It also meant a man who wished to appear to be a gentleman but lacked the breeding to do so. Therefore, some assumed that either these faux-gentlemen's drinks of choice over time acquired the same name, or a clever chap noted that a non-thoroughbred horse is a mix of breeds and "cocktail" is a mix of spirits and was inspired to give the drinks that moniker.

 

My favorite theory is that "cocktail" was derived from the 16th century drink "######-ale," which had as an ingredient--I kid you not--a dead rooster.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcocktail.html