Editing Beer (section)

==Etymology==

{{see also|Ale#Etymology}}
[[File:Beowulf - beore.jpg|thumb|{{Langx|ang|Beore}} 'beer']]

In early forms of English and in the Scandinavian languages, the usual word for beer was the word whose Modern English form is ''[[ale]]''.<ref name=Fell-1975-Leeds/> The modern word ''beer'' comes into present-day English from [[Old English]] {{lang|ang|bēor}}, itself from [[Common Germanic]], it is found throughout the [[West Germanic]] and [[North Germanic]] dialects (modern Dutch and German {{lang|nl|bier}}, [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|bjórr}}). The earlier etymology of the word is debated: the three main theories are that the word originates in Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*beuzą}} (putatively from [[Proto-Indo-European]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|*bʰeusóm}}), meaning "[[brewer's yeast]], beer dregs"; that it is related to the word ''[[barley]]'', or that it was somehow borrowed from Latin {{lang|la|bibere}} "to drink".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=beer, n.1. |dictionary=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] Online |edition=1st |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1887 |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/16986 |access-date=28 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101033209/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=4699266323F0BF6431ED7281B79E085A?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F16986 |archive-date=1 November 2022}}</ref><ref name=Fell-1975-Leeds>{{cite report |last=Fell |first=Christine |year=1975 |title=Beor |department=Old English |series=Leeds Studies in English |volume=8 |pages=76–95 |publisher=[[University of Leeds]] |place=Leeds, UK |url=http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/132/1/LSE1975_pp76-95_Fell_article.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003111259/http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/132/1/LSE1975_pp76-95_Fell_article.pdf |archive-date=3 October 2020 }}</ref>

[[Christine Fell]], in ''[[Leeds Studies in English]]'' (1975), suggests that the Old English/Norse word ''bēor'' did not originally denote ale or beer, but a strong, sweet drink rather like [[mead]] or [[cider]]. Whatever the case, the meaning of ''bēor'' expanded to cover the meaning of ''ale''. When hopped ale from Europe was imported into Britain in the late Middle Ages, it was described as "beer" to differentiate it from the British unhopped ale, later acquiring a broader meaning.<ref name=Fell-1975-Leeds/>