Where did the word cocktail come from?

Answer 1

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

Colonial taverns kept their spirits (rum, brandy, whiskey, gin, applejack) in casks, and as the liquid in the casks lowered, the spirits would tend to lose both flavor and potency, so the tavern keeper would have an additional cask into which the tailings from the low casks could be combined and sold at a reduced price, the patrons requesting the "cocktailings" or the tailings from the stop cokk of the cask. This was H.L. Mencken's belief.
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, which symptoms are actually the result of a mini-withdrawal/down-regulation effect.
Some say that it was customary to put a feather, presumably from a rooster'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 egg-cup which was used to serve the beverage in New Orleans in the early 19th century.[1]
The beverage was named for a mixed breed horse, known as a "****-tail" as the beverage, like the horse, was neither strictly spirit nor wine - it was a mixed breed.
The word could also be a distortion of Latin [aqua] decocta, meaning "distilled water".

Answer 2

There are a few possible sources according to Wikipedia. Check it out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail#Etymology

The first one sounds the most plausible to me, although I'm not sure now, having checked out Michael Quinion's World Wide Words (great site!).

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-coc3.htm

Answer 3

from the french word coquetier , cocktails began in new orleans in the 19th century.

Answer 4

Everybody wants cocktails, just like all women want c0ck and all men chase tail.

Answer 5

What is the word a combination of? What ensues after drinking one?

I'd be clearer but the Yahoo Nazis would yell at me.

Answer 6

such a filthy question!