cocktail
pronunciation
How to pronounce cocktail in British English:
UK [ˈkɒkteɪl]
How to pronounce cocktail in American English:
US [ˈkɑːkteɪl]
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- Noun:
- a short mixed drink
- an appetizer served as a first course at a meal
Word Origin
- cocktail
- cocktail: [19] The origins of the word cocktail are mysterious. It first appeared (in America) in the first decade of the 19th century, roughly contemporary with cocktail meaning ‘horse with a cocked tail’ – that is, one cut short and so made to stick up like a cock’s tail – but whether the two words are connected, and if so, how the drink came to be named after such a horse, are not at all clear.
- cocktail (n.)
- first attested 1806; H.L. Mencken lists seven versions of its origin, perhaps the most durable traces it to French coquetier "egg-cup" (15c.; in English cocktay). In New Orleans, c. 1795, Antoine Amédée Peychaud, an apothecary (and inventor of Peychaud bitters) held Masonic social gatherings at his pharmacy, where he mixed brandy toddies with his own bitters and served them in an egg-cup. On this theory, the drink took the name of the cup. Used from 1920s of any mix of substances (fruit, Molotov). Cocktail party first attested 1928.
Example
- 1. The question comes up a lot at cocktail parties .
- 2. Now researchers have found a chemical cocktail that might do the trick .
- 3. The workshop starts with a mock cocktail party .
- 4. You 'll make the cocktail gods happy .
- 5. Strain cocktail into the glass .