Where did the word cocktail come from?
118029
There are several plausible theories as to the origin of the term "cocktail". Among them are:\n\n    * Some say that it was customary to put a feather (presumably from a Kock's tail) in the drink to serve both as decoration and to signal to teetotalers that the drink contained alcohol.\n    * Another etymology is that the term is derived from coquetier, a French egg-cup which was used to serve the beverage in New Orleans in the early 19th century.\n    * The word could also be a distortion of Latin [aqua] decocta, meaning "distilled water".\n\n\n\nIn general, a cocktail is a mix of several substances, usually liquids.\n\nThis article describes the cocktail as a mixed drink, usually containing one or more distilled alcoholic beverages and perhaps non-alcoholic drinks, ice and sometimes liqueur, fruit, sauce, honey, milk or cream, spices, etc. The cocktail became popular during Prohibition in the United States; to mask the taste of bootlegged alcohol, the bartenders at a speakeasy would mix it with other liquors and non-alcoholic drinks.\n\nUntil the 1970s, cocktails were made predominantly with gin, whiskey, or rum, and rarely vodka. From the 1970s on, the popularity of vodka increased dramatically. By the 1980s it was the predominant base for mixed drinks. Many cocktails traditionally made with gin, such as the gimlet, may now be served by default with vodka.\n\nNon-alcoholic carbonated beverages that are used nearly exclusively in cocktails (or in non-alcoholic soda fountain drinks, such as the egg cream) include soda water, tonic water and seltzer. Liqueurs are also common cocktail ingredients.
1100820
Current popularity probably came from the Booyah Tribe (rap group). Before that it was used as a slang exclamation or expression of excitement and victory. Long before that and current today, it is a delicious chicken soup originating in Belgium!\nBOOYAH M*****F*****!!
18371
It is an idiom intended to mean "be careful, pay attention to detail"  it has morphed, in recent times, to mean many other things including "be polite".\n\nThere are several theories about it's origin, but the one I believe makes the most sense is - mind your Pints and Quarts.  Meaning to keep track of what you order in a pup so you are not over charged.
611756
to matear a piece\n\nBrazilians have even invented the verb "matear," which means "to drink mate," or literally "to mate." (Not to be confused with the English verb, please.)
109945
Urine comes from the Latin, urinari, which means, to dive...however it's related to a Sanskrit variation, which means, it rains!\n\nPiss, however, comes from the Old French, pissier, and it is supposed to be a word that sounds like the activity itself!\n\nSlang & linguistic drift account for the many variations in language which we experience today...
451782
This is one of the 'biggest' questions to answer I've seen here! \n\nSimply word origin is about where words originally came from and there are so many sources it's impossible to list them all here but, for English, you'll often find the sources are Latin, Greek, Old English, Middle English, German, French etc.\n\nHow they originated is much more difficult, for example we know the word 'sandwich' originated because is was the Earl of Sandwich who first thought of putting meat between two slices of bread but it is very rarely that we can pinpoint the first use of a word and thus its individual point of origin so accurately.\n\nHowever it is often possible to trace how the meanings of words have developed over time.\n\nIf you want to look further into the subject you might try the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (probably available in libraries), which gives the first known use for thousands of words and often traces their development in meaning over the years. Other dictionaries may have a similar approach and you will often find (L), (Gr) etc. in small italics after the word in most dictionaries, indicating the language they come from (Latin and Greek in those two examples) - check the list of abbreviations (usually at the beginning of the dictionary).\n\nHope this helps...
1170816
This originated in the early 1980s. It is generally regarded as an American expression. This item from the New York newspaper the Syracuse Herald-American, Feb. 1982, which is the earliest version in print that I can find, puts that in some doubt. It's in a piece by Jerry Buck, writing out of Los Angeles, about actress Lauren Tewes
429233
It originally meant "foreign" from the Greek language (most likely) or "hairy" from Latin...
741742
I think it's a euphemism for "jacksh-t"\nSo now the question is, where did THAT phrase come from?
41996
Coca-Cola was invented in Columbus, Georgia, by John S. Pemberton in 1884, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. He was inspired by the formidable success of European Angelo Mariani's cocawine, Vin Mariani.\n\nIn 1885, after Coca-Cola moved, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a carbonated, non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola. The beverage was named Coca-Cola because originally, the stimulant mixed in the beverage was coca leaves from South America.\nFor More...click on \n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola\nBest information about the history and the brand\n\nOfficial Website:http://www.cocacola.com/flashIndex1.html\n\nThe "secret" recipe revealed:http://www.therisenrealm.com/cocacola_recipe.html\n\nThings Go Better With COKE
1129650
Haha .... don't know really, but our daughter lives in Britain and she uses it very well now with a very "British" accent!!!\n\nThese links at least show that others are looking for its origin too!!   You never know what you'll learn by browsing YA!!!  I hope this helps.
809846
Blast from the past- it means up to mischief or " no good"  I do not know where it came from but it has been around since at least the 30-40's  \n\nI just googled shenanigans and it is from the 1920's and there actually was a play named that.  Try Wikipedia- but I am right about the meaning.
1138109
'tie on one'\n\n"From "The Wordsworth Book of Euphemism" by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth Reference, New York, 1983, 1990) -- "Tie one on, to - To get drunk. (Eric) Partridge suggests that this expression is derived from 'hang one on' (ca. 1935), which originated in the United States and was later adopted in Canada. It is clear that a 'hangover' -- more politely, 'the morning after' -- is the miserable memento of having 'hung' or 'tied one on.' We are uncertain as to why drinking is described as tieing, hanging or belting...""\n\n'belly up to the bar'\n\n" "belly up! belly up to the bar, boys!" Drinks on the house, boys!: Canadian: 20th century. Cf. the US underworld, mostly pickpockets', catch phrase "belly up?," Have a drink!--c. 1930-50. Prompted by the English-speaking world's toast "bottoms up!""\n\nor:\n\n"belly up to: To approach something straight on, to move straight ahead; fig., to push one's belly toward or up to something. 1953: ". . . For a fellow to belly up to a bar and buy a round of drinks. . . ." "
33399
A made up term for the plastic coating on the end of your shoe laces.  From the movie Cocktail.
592806
The story of the word "quiz" goes that in 1791 a Dublin theater owner named James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within twenty-four hours. He then went out and hired a group of street urchins to write the word "quiz", which was a nonsense word, on walls around the city of Dublin. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning (since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test) and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket.\n\nIt's a fun story. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence to support it and the term was in use prior to the alleged bet in 1791.\n\nThe first appearance of the word is from 1782 and means an odd person. This sense survives today in the word "quizzical". It later aquired a meaning of to make fun of, or to mock. How it acquired its current meaning of a test is unknown, but that sense did not appear until 1867 and then it was in the United States.\n\nThe OED2 has a cite from 1847 where the word appears: "She com back and quiesed us," which could be a clue to its origin. Quiz as a test could be a corruption of the Latin Qui es, meaning "Who are you?" American Heritage says it may be from the English dialect verb quiset, meaning to question. In any case it is probably from the same root as question and inquisitive.
833115
Here's a website on word origins that has a few suggestions:\n\nhttp://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/97.html
59836
Our word comes from:\nMiddle English - knif\nOld English - cnf\nOld Norse - knfr\n\nWhilst the French now use the word 'couteau', not long ago the word 'canife' was more common. Not surprising perhaps when the part of modern France called Normandie was the place of the North-men (Norse).