Editing Cocktail (section)

== Etymology ==
The origin of the word "cocktail" is disputed. It is presumably from "cock-tail", meaning "with tail standing up, like a cock's", in particular of a horse, but how this came to be applied to alcoholic mixed drinks is unclear. The most prominent theories are that it refers to a stimulant, hence a ''stimulating'' drink, or to a non-purebred horse, hence a ''mixed'' drink.

Cocktail historian David Wondrich speculates that "cocktail" is a reference to [[gingering]], a practice for perking up an old horse by means of a ginger suppository so that the animal would "cock its tail up and be frisky",<ref>{{Cite web|last=Archibald|first=Anna|title=The Origin of 'Cocktail' Is Not What You Think|url=http://liquor.com/articles/the-origin-of-cocktail-is-not-what-you-think/#gs.Ke8aTTo|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124012550/http://liquor.com/articles/the-origin-of-cocktail-is-not-what-you-think/|archive-date=November 24, 2020|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=Liquor.com}}</ref> hence by extension a stimulating drink, like ''pick-me-up''. This agrees with usage in early citations (1798: "'cock-tail' (vulgarly called ginger)", 1803: drink at 11 a.m. to clear the head, 1806: "stimulating liquor"), and suggests that a cocktail was initially considered a medicinal drink, which accords with the use of bitters.

Etymologist [[Anatoly Liberman]] endorses as "highly probable" the theory advanced by Låftman (1946), which Liberman summarizes as follows:<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Donka|first1=Robert|title=Studies in the History of the English Language V: Variation and Change in English Grammar and Lexicon: Contemporary Approaches|last2=Cloutier|first2=Robert|last3=Stockwell|first3=Anne|last4=William|first4=Kretzschmar|publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]]|year=2010|isbn=9783110220322}}</ref>

{{blockquote|It was customary to dock the tails of horses that were not thoroughbred{{nbsp}}[...] They were called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails. By extension, the word cocktail was applied to a vulgar, ill-bred person raised above his station, assuming the position of a gentleman but deficient in gentlemanly breeding.{{nbsp}}[...] Of importance [in the 1806 citation above] is{{nbsp}}[...] the mention of water as an ingredient.{{nbsp}}[...] Låftman concluded that cocktail was an acceptable alcoholic drink, but diluted, not a "purebred", a thing "raised above its station". Hence the highly appropriate slang word used earlier about inferior horses and sham gentlemen.}}

=== Citations ===
The first recorded use of cocktail not referring to a horse is found in ''The Morning Post and Gazetteer'' in London, England, March 20, 1798:<ref>{{cite book|author=Brown|first=Jared|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OiKc-UoIVZsC|title=Spirituous Journey: A History of Drink|publisher=Clearview Books|year=2011|isbn=9781908337092|access-date=April 19, 2021|archive-date=April 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419150617/https://books.google.com/books?id=OiKc-UoIVZsC|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{poemquote|
Mr. Pitt,
two petit vers of "L'huile de Venus"
Ditto, one of "perfeit amour"
Ditto, "cock-tail" (vulgarly called ginger)
}}

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' cites the word as originating in the U.S. The first recorded use of ''cocktail'' as a beverage (possibly non-alcoholic) in the United States appears in ''The Farmer's Cabinet'', April 28, 1803:<ref name="Wondrich">{{cite book|last=Wondrich|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IBqdBAAAQBAJ|title=Imbibe!|publisher=Penguin|year=2015|isbn=9780698181854|access-date=April 19, 2021|archive-date=April 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428203014/https://books.google.com/books?id=IBqdBAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|11. [a.m.] Drank a glass of cocktail—excellent for the head...Call'd at the Doct's. found Burnham—he looked very wise—drank another glass of cocktail.}}

[[File:The first definition of Cocktail.jpg|thumb|The first known definition of a cocktail, by [[Harry Croswell]]]]
The first definition of cocktail known to be an alcoholic beverage appeared in ''The Balance and Columbian Repository'' ([[Hudson, New York]]) May 13, 1806; editor [[Harry Croswell]] answered the question, "What is a cocktail?":

{{blockquote|''Cock-tail'' is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and [[bitters]]—it is vulgarly called ''bittered sling'', and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, in as much as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a [[United States Democratic-Republican Party|democratic]] candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else.<ref>[http://www.imbibemagazine.com/images/Balance_5-13-1806.pdf ''The Balance and Columbian Repository''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713113329/http://www.imbibemagazine.com/images/Balance_5-13-1806.pdf |date=2014-07-13 }}, May 13, 1806, No. 19, Vol. V, page 146</ref>}}

=== Folk etymologies ===
Other origins have been suggested, as [[Language change|corruptions]] of other words or phrases. These can be dismissed as [[folk etymology|folk etymologies]], given the well-attested term "cock-tail" for a horse.

[[Dale DeGroff]] hypothesizes that the word evolved from the French {{lang|fr|coquetier}}, for an eggcup in which Antoine A. Peychaud, creator of [[Peychaud's Bitters]], allegedly used to serve his guests a mix of cognac with a dash of his bitters.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Craft of the Cocktail|last=DeGroff|first=Dale|publisher=Clarkson Potter|year=2002|isbn=0-609-60875-4|location=New York City|pages=6|language=en}}</ref>

Several authors have theorized that "cocktail" may be a [[Language change|corruption]] of "[[cock ale]]".<ref>{{Cite web|title=cocktail, adj. and n.|url=https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/35499|url-status=live|access-date=April 19, 2021|website=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|archive-date=April 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419150617/https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/35499}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=(the Wordsmith)|first=Chrysti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=neH-xQQWbowC|title=Verbivore's Feast: A Banquet of Word & Phrase Origins|publisher=Farcountry Press|year=2004|isbn=9781560372653|pages=68|access-date=April 19, 2021|archive-date=August 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805062559/https://books.google.com/books?id=neH-xQQWbowC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Powers|first=Madelon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99IDuIGxckcC|title=Faces Along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=1998|isbn=9780226677682|pages=272–273|access-date=April 19, 2021|archive-date=December 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223215848/https://books.google.com/books?id=99IDuIGxckcC|url-status=live}}</ref>