Why are cocktails (drinks) called "cocktails"???

Question

Why is it called that?

Answer 1

Copied and pasted from wikipedia:

There are several plausible theories as to the origin of the term "cocktail". Among them are:

    * Barrel taps are known as c***s and the term tails usually referred to the dregs of distillate left at the end of a run in a distillery or at the bottom of a cask. Colonial taverns kept their spirits (rum, brandy, whiskey, gin, applejack) in casks, and as the liquid in the casks lowered the tavern keeper would combine the tails into an additional cask kept for that purpose, to be sold at a reduced price. The patrons would request the "c**k tailings" or the tailings from the stop c**k of the cask.

    * Fighting c***s were given a mixture of spirits by their trainers before a fight. This mixture was known as a c***s-ale.

    * In Campeche, Mexico, local bartenders used wooden spoons carved from a native root known as cola de-gallo (cocktail) to stir the local spirits and punches before serving.

    * A tavern near Yorktown, New York was popular with the officers of the Revolutionary soldiers of Washington and Layfayette. The American troops preferred whiskey or gin, the French preferred wine or vermouth. All enjoyed a bit of brandy or rum. Sometimes late in the evenings, in a spirit of camaraderie, the spirits were mixed from one cup to another during toasts. A soldier stole a rooster from the tavern owner's neighbor, who was believed to be a Tory supporter of King George of England. The rooster was promptly cooked and served to the customers, with the tail feathers used to adorn the accompanying drinks. The toasts accompanying this meal were "vive le cocktail" and the mixed drinks were so called ever after.[6]

    * Cocktails were originally a morning beverage, and the cocktail was the name given as metaphor for the rooster (cocktail) heralding morning light of day. This was first posited in 2004 by Ted Haigh in "Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails". and can be distinguished from the theory "take two snips of the hair of the dog that bit you", which refers to consuming a small bit of alcohol the morning after a "binge drinking night" to curb the effects of the symptoms of the hangover, in the belief that these symptoms are the result of a form of withdrawal. A c**k's tail has many varied feathers in exciting colours as a cocktail has varied exciting alcoholic drinks mixed together. Further the cloaca in the tail of c**k is the exit hole for many impure substances.

    * Some say that it was customary to put a feather, presumably from a c**k's tail, in the drink to serve both as decoration and to signal to teetotalers that the drink contained alcohol.

    * Another etymology is that the term is derived from coquetier, a French double-ended egg-cup which was used to serve the beverage in New Orleans in the early 19th century.[7]

    * In the 1800's it was customary to dock the tails of good horses of mixed breeds. These horses were referred to as c**k-tails. The beverage known as a "c**k-tail", like the horse, was neither strictly spirit nor wine — it was a mixed breed, but a good horse nonetheless.

    * After cokstele or c**k-stick, a type of weighted stick used for throwing at c***s as a sport. See c**k throwing.

    * The word could also be a distortion of Latin [aqua] decocta, meaning "distilled water".

    * In the book, Under the Mountain, by Margaret Robson, published in 1958, the author states, "James Fenimore Cooper stayed (at Hustler's Tavern) in Lewiston, New York in 1821 while writing The Spy. In The Spy, Cooper wrote of c**k-tails being served in Betsy Flanagan's tavern. Cooper researched the novel by using information taken from war veterans and used the owners, Thomas and Catherine Hustler, as the models for Sergeant Hollister and Betty Flanigan. According to Cooper, it was Catherine Hustler who invented the gin cocktail, stirring it with a feather from a stuffed rooster's tail." Catherine Hustler described her drink by saying, "it warms both the soul and body and is fit to be put in a vessel of diamonds." Hustler's Tavern, which stood at the northeast corner of 8th and Center Streets in Lewiston, NY, is no longer standing.

Answer 2

Because if you drink too many, you feel as if you slept the night away with one stuffed up each nostril...........

Answer 3

"A cocktail is a style of a mixed drink"... one could easily say "we're going out for a couple beers" or "we're going out for martini's" but cocktails is just like saying "we're going out for a bite to eat" it could mean anything....

Answer 4

Barrel taps are known as c***s and the term tails usually referred to the dregs of distillate left at the end of a run in a distillery or at the bottom of a cask. Colonial taverns kept their spirits (rum, brandy, whiskey, gin, applejack) in casks, and as the liquid in the casks lowered the tavern keeper would combine the tails into an additional cask kept for that purpose, to be sold at a reduced price. The patrons would request the "c**k tailings" or the tailings from the stop c**k of the cask.

Answer 5

I think it means a drink with spirits,beer,and water.

Answer 6

The etymology of this word has been hard to pin down, although it's widely accepted that it originated in the US, probably from a French derivation.