Editing Cocktail (section)

=== 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>}}