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The word was not accepted by lexicographers until
about the beginning of the present century, each pupdit
advancing a different version as to its origin. Dr. Frank
H. Vizetelly, noted editor of the Standard Dictionary
and authority on words, writes me;
The cocktail goes back at least to the beginning of
the 19th century, and may date back to the American
Revolution. It is alleged by one writer to have been a
concoction prepared by the widow of a Revolutionary
soldier as far back at 1779. He offers no proof of the
statement, but a publication. The Balance, for May 13,
1806, describes the cocktail of that period as 'a stimulating
liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and
bitters. It is vulgarly called hitter sling, and is supposed
to be an excellent electioneering potion.'
"Washington Irving in Knickerbocker (1809), page
241, said of the cocktail- 'They (Dutch-Americans) lay
claim to be the first inventors of the recondite beverages,
cock'tail, stone-fence, and sherry-cobbler.' Hawthorne re
ferred to cocktails in The Blithedale Romance (1852),
as did Thackeray in his The Newcomes (1854), but
neither of these authors shed any light upon the origin
of the term.
The New England Dictionary on Historical Princi
ples says that the origin of the word cocktail is lost. In
this connection one writer refers to the older term cock
tail, meaning a horse whose tail, being docked, sticks
up like the tail of a cock. He adds: 'Since drinkers
of cocktails believe them to be exhilarating, the recently
popular song "Horsy, keep your tail up," may perhaps
hint at a possible connection between the two senses of
"cocktail".'
T welve