cocktail
Etymology
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Etymology
Early 17th century, from cock + tail, in the sense “(a horse with its) tail standing up, like a cock’s”.
The origin of the extension to “an alcoholic mixed drink” is unknown. One theory is that it refers to a simulant (gingering), hence a simulating drink; compare pick-me-up.
Another attested use is for non-thoroughbred racehorses: these were considered "cock-tailed" due to their docked tails. This may have led to the term "cocktail" (sense 1) being used for an adulterated spirit.
Pronunciation Nouncocktail (plural cocktails)
- A mixed alcoholic beverage.
- Synonyms: mixed drink, ckt
- They visited a bar noted for its wide range of cocktails.
- 2011, Mark Polonsky et al., USSR: From an Original Idea by Karl Marx, page 32:
- The cocktail in Britain is a rigidly-defined social institution: each has its own particular meaning—the G & T is the alcoholic equivalent of the interview suit; Pernod and black is an alternative to glue sniffing for repentant trendies, etc.
- (by extension) A mixture of other substances or things.
- Synonyms: Thesaurus:hodgepodge
- Scientists found a cocktail of pollutants in the river downstream from the chemical factory.
- a cocktail of illegal drugs
- A horse, not of pure breed, but having only one eighth or one sixteenth impure blood in its veins.
- (UK, slang, dated) A mean, half-hearted fellow.
- Synonyms: coward
- 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC ↗:
- It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail.
- A species of rove beetle, so called from its habit of elevating the tail.
- French: cocktail
- German: Cocktail
- Italian: cocktail
- Portuguese: coquetel
- Russian: кокте́йль
- Spanish: cóctel, coctel
cocktail
- (obsolete) Ostentatiously lacking in manners.
cocktail (cocktails, present participle cocktailing; simple past and past participle cocktailed)
- (transitive) To adulterate (fuel, etc.) by mixing in other substances.
- (transitive) To treat (a person) to cocktails.
- He dined and cocktailed her at the most exclusive bars and restaurants.
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