1935 Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book

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OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK

of these authors sheds any light upon the origin of the term. "The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles says that the origin of the word cocktail is lost. In this con– nection, one writer refers to the older term cocktail, mean– ing a horse whose tail, being docked, sticks up like the tail of a cock. He adds: 'Since drinkers of cocktails believe them to be exhilarating, the recently popular song, "Horsey, keep your tail up," may perhaps hint at a pos– sible connection between the two senses of "cocktail." ' "Bartlett in his 'Dictionary of Americanisms' gives the following: 'Cocktail'-A stimulating beverage, made of brandy, gin or other liquor, mixed with bitters, sugar and very little water. A friend thinks that this term was sug– gested by the shape which froth, as of a glass of porter, assumes when it flows over the sides of a tumbler con– taining the liquid effervescing.' He quotes the following from the New York Tribune of May 8, 1862: 'A bowie– knife and a foaming cocktail.' In the Yorkshire dialect, cocktail described beer that is fresh and foaming. "Brewer, in 'A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' follow– ing the definition of cocktail, adds the note: 'The origin of the term is unknown. The story given in the New York World (1891) to the effect that it is an Aztec word, and that 'the liquor' was discovered by an Aztec noble, who sent it by the hand of his daughter Xochitl to the King, who promptly named it "xoctl," whence "cocktail," is a good specimen of the manufacture of etymologies.' "As you will see from the foregoing," Dr. Vizetelly .concludes, "altho many theories have been advanced as to the etymology of the term cocktail, these, like most ety– mologies of the kind, are mere flights of fancy, and while