Note 97 — AMERICAN DRINKS.

The dictionary explanations of these terms are commonly unsatisfactory. The experience of the bar-tender is more than the learning of the lexicographer. Cobbler, indeed, is well explained as compounded of wine, sugar, lemon, and sucked up through a straw; but of cocktail we only learn that it is a compounded drink much used in America. The etymologies given are generally satisfactory. Julep is from گلاب rose water. Mull from mulled, erroneously taken as a past participle. According to Wedgwood, mulled is a form of mould, and mulled ale is funeral ale, potatio funerosa. Nogg is from noggin, signifying a pot, and then the strong beer which it contains. Negus is commonly known to have been the invention of Col. Francis Negus in the reign of Anne. Punch is of course from the Hindustani پانچ, signifying 5, from its five original ingredients, to wit, aqua vitæ, rose water, sugar, arrack, and citron juice. A very unsatisfactory derivation of Sangaree is from the Spanish sangria, the incision of a vein. Shrub is clearly the Arabic شرب or syrup. Smash, explained curtly as “iced brandy and water.” (Slang) is probably from the smashing of the ice; while sling seems evidently to be from the German schlingen, to swallow.