What beverage was named for Edward Vernon, the English
admiral who served his crew diluted rum?
Etymology, Etymology, and more Etymology
as well as grammar, usage, euphemism, slang, jargon, semantics (meaning), linguistics, neologism, idiom, word origin, syntax, dialect, lexicon (vocabulary), diction, pidgin, synonym, antonym, homonym, cant, argot, lingo, and redundancy.
The critically-acclaimed board game
MooT
consists of tough questions about the nuances of the English language.
Answer:
grog
The word grog first
appears around 1770 and is supposedly an allusion to Old Grog, the nickname of Edward Vernon
(1684-1757), a British admiral who regularly wore a grogram cloak and who in
1740 ordered his sailors' rum to be diluted ? to improve discipline.
This rapidly became the standard way of serving the
naval rum ration until the ration was abolished in 1970.
Note that: When the War of Jenkin's Ear against the Spanish broke
out in 1739, Vernon captured their base at Porto Bello, Panama with only six
ships.
Thomas Arne composed Rule Britannia as a tribute
to this exploit.
Edward
Vernon: warrior and temperance advocate
Please note that these are draft questions for the board game MooT.
If you spot an error or disagree with anything I've said here,
please let me know and I'll fix it.
(the Mootguy)
Feedback
I always heard that grog was named due to the sailors of
old being given fruit juice to prevent scurvy. As one might imagine, the juice
became fermented thus making the sailors 'groggy', hence the name. I'm always
interested in hearing origins. Thank you for your site. By the way, I found it
simply by typing the word 'moot' into a search engine.
x-hppartridge@carolina.rr.com
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