Etymology

Early 17th century, from cock (“male bird”) + tail, in the sense “(a horse with its) tail standing up, like a cock’s”. The origin of the extension to “an alcoholic mixed drink” is unknownCategory:English terms with unknown etymologies#COCKTAIL. One theory is that it refers to a stimulant (gingering), hence a stimulating drink; compare pick-me-up.^[1] Another attested use is for non-thoroughbred racehorses: these were considered "cock-tailed" due to their docked tails. This may have led to the term "cocktail" (sense 1) being used for an adulterated spirit.^[2]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒk.teɪl/Category:English 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑk.teɪl/Category:English 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔk.tæɪl/Category:English 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#COCKTAIL

Noun

cocktail (plural cocktails)Category:English lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:English nouns#COCKTAILCategory:English countable nouns#COCKTAILCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

2. A mixed alcoholic beverage.

   Synonyms: mixed drink, (abbreviation) ckt

   Hypernyms: drink < drink, beverage

   They visited a bar noted for its wide range of cocktails.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

   • 1806 May 6, “Rum! Rum! Rum!”, in Balance and Columbian Repository‎, volume v, number 18, New York: Hudson, page 142:

     [...] a certain candidate has placed in his account of Loss and Gain, the following items:-- LOSS [...] 411 glasses bitters[,] 25 do. cock-tail

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 1806 May 13, “Communication”, in Balance and Columbian Repository‎, volume v, number 19, New York: Hudson, page 146:

     Cock tail, then, is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters — it is vulgarly called bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 1904, Charlotte Bryson Taylor, “Chapter VI”, in In the Dwellings of the Wilderness:

     Deane opened the fray by declaring, à propos of dinners, that the only proper way to create a cocktail of the genus Martini was to add a half-spoonful of sherry after the other ingredients had been satisfactorily mixed, if at all.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “Chapter 8”, in Babbitt:

     He moved majestically down to mix the cocktails. As he chipped ice, as he squeezed oranges, as he collected vast stores of bottles, glasses, and spoons at the sink in the pantry, he felt as authoritative as the bartender at Healey Hanson's saloon.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 2011, Mark Polonsky et al., USSR: From an Original Idea by Karl Marx, page 32:

     The cocktail in Britain is a rigidly-defined social institution: each has its own particular meaning—the G & T is the alcoholic equivalent of the interview suit; Pernod and black is an alternative to glue sniffing for repentant trendies, etc.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
3. (by extension) A mixture of other substances or things.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hodgepodge

   Scientists found a cocktail of pollutants in the river downstream from the chemical factory.Category:English terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

   a cocktail of illegal drugsCategory:English terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

   • 2013, Andrew Farmer, Managing Environmental Pollution, Routledge, →ISBN, page 22:

     Motor vehicles, for example, emit a cocktail of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulates, heavy metals and (for diesel) sulphur dioxide.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 2019, Eliza Hartrich, “Edward IV, the Earl of Warwick, and a Changing Urban Sector, 1461–71”, in Politics and the Urban Sector in Fifteenth-Century England, 1413–1471, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 181:

     This chapter examines how the concurrent phenomena of an assertive monarch, persistent civil war, and economic change affected the political activities of townspeople in three ways: in the relationship between the ‘urban sector’ and the English polity, in the complexion of municipal internal politics, and in the nature of urban participation in the civil wars of 1469–71. In all three of these fields, the particular cocktail of circumstances present in the 1460s encouraged a wide variety of townspeople to become invested emotionally and materially in the course of national politics, as they had not been during much of the 1450s.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, page 38:

     Terry Gourvish, the lead author if the authorised commercial history of BR, described the new BTC structure thus: "The conclusion must be that the combination of a few undynamic railwaymen, underpaid full-timers (Commission and General Staff) and poorly-paid part-time businessmen was not a very potent managerial cocktail."

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

4. A horse, not of pure breed, but having only one eighth or one sixteenth impure blood in its veins.
   • 1868, Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, volume ii, John Murray, page 11:

     A “cock-tail” is a horse not purely bred, but with only one-eighth or one-sixteenth impure blood in his veins

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

5. (UKCategory:British English#COCKTAIL, slangCategory:English slang#COCKTAIL, datedCategory:English dated terms#COCKTAIL) A mean, half-hearted fellow.

   Synonym: coward

   • 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:

     It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

6. A species of rove beetle, so called from its habit of elevating the tail.

Adjective

cocktail (comparative more cocktail, superlative most cocktail)Category:English lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:English adjectives#COCKTAILCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#COCKTAIL) Ostentatiously lacking in manners.
   • 1830, Sporting Magazine:

     It looks very cocktail to be seen riding through the streets of London in a scarlet coat ;

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 1840, The Sporting magazine:

     The Prince had nothing particular about him but a monstrous smart whip with a gold stag for a handle, which was pronounced a very cocktail looking instrument by the Leicestershire farmers, with whom His Serene Highness is no favorite

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 2008, Christine Kelly, Mrs Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the Crimea, 1854-6, →ISBN:

     She always goes about with a brace of loaded revolvers in her belt!! Very cocktail and no occasion for it

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

   • 1875, Charles Thomas Samuel Birch Reynardson, 'Down the Road': Or, Reminiscences of a Gentleman Coachman:

     Nothing looks so cocktail and muffish on a coach as to see a man learning to catch his whip, and after many futile efforts taking it upside down for this purpose, and twisting the thong round and round with the point downwards, as if he was stirring porridge for a pack of hounds.

     Category:English terms with quotations#COCKTAIL

Verb

cocktail (third-person singular simple present cocktails, present participle cocktailing, simple past and past participle cocktailed)Category:English lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:English verbs#COCKTAILCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COCKTAIL) To adulterate (fuel, etc.) by mixing in other substances.
2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COCKTAIL) To treat (a person) to cocktails.

   He dined and cocktailed her at the most exclusive bars and restaurants.Category:English terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

See also

• swizzle
• See also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage

References

• Michael Quinion (2004), “Cocktail”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:Dutch terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Dutch terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔkteːl/Category:Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL

• Audio:

  (file)

  Category:Dutch terms with audio pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• Hyphenation: cock‧tail

Noun

cocktail m (plural cocktails, diminutive cocktailtje n)Category:Dutch lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Dutch nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Dutch nouns with plural in -s#COCKTAILCategory:Dutch entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Dutch masculine nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail

Alternative forms

• koktaili

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:Finnish terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Finnish terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoktɑi̯l/, [ˈko̞kt̪ɑ̝i̯l]Category:Finnish 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• IPA^(key): /ˈkoktei̯l/, [ˈko̞kt̪e̞i̯l]Category:Finnish 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• Rhymes: -oktɑilCategory:Rhymes:Finnish/oktɑil#COCKTAILCategory:Rhymes:Finnish/oktɑil/2 syllables#COCKTAIL
• Syllabification^(key): cock‧tail
• Hyphenation^(key): cock‧tail

Noun

cocktailCategory:Finnish lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Finnish nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Finnish terms spelled with C#COCKTAILCategory:Finnish entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail (mixed drink)

Further reading

• “cocktail”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:French terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:French terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔk.tɛl/Category:French 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#COCKTAIL

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#COCKTAIL

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#COCKTAIL

Noun

cocktail m (plural cocktails)Category:French lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:French nouns#COCKTAILCategory:French countable nouns#COCKTAILCategory:French terms spelled with K#COCKTAILCategory:French entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:French masculine nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail
   • 1977 December 17, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 14:

     J'espere que vous accepteriez cette invitation extraordinaire au voyage! Si vous voulez un rapport de qualite avec un homme mur et debonnair. Je propose, au debut, des cocktails dans une ambiance elegante pour une recontre joyeuse.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

     Category:French terms with quotations#COCKTAILCategory:Requests for translations of French quotations#COCKTAIL

2. (metonymicCategory:French metonyms#COCKTAIL) cocktail party
3. a mixture or combination of things

   Un cocktail de médicaments

   a combination of prescription drugs

   Category:French terms with collocations#COCKTAIL

Further reading

• “cocktail”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from EnglishCategory:Italian terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Italian unadapted borrowings from English#COCKTAILCategory:Italian terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔk.tel/^[1]Category:Italian 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:Italian terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• Rhymes: -ɔktelCategory:Rhymes:Italian/ɔktel#COCKTAILCategory:Rhymes:Italian/ɔktel/2 syllables#COCKTAIL

• Audio:

  (file)

  Category:Italian terms with audio pronunciation#COCKTAIL

Noun

cocktail m (invariable)Category:Italian lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Italian nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Italian countable nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Italian indeclinable nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Italian terms spelled with K#COCKTAILCategory:Italian entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Italian masculine nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail

   Synonyms: (rare) coccotello, (rare) polibibita

2. cocktail party

References

Etymology

From EnglishCategory:Norwegian Bokmål terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail.

Noun

cocktail m (definite singular cocktailen, indefinite plural cocktailer, definite plural cocktailene)Category:Norwegian Bokmål lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Bokmål nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Bokmål terms spelled with C#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Bokmål entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Bokmål masculine nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail

References

• “cocktail” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From EnglishCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail.

Noun

cocktail m (definite singular cocktailen, indefinite plural cocktailar, definite plural cocktailane)Category:Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk terms spelled with C#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk masculine nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail

References

• “cocktail” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Alternative forms

• cocteil

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from EnglishCategory:Romanian terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian unadapted borrowings from English#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail or FrenchCategory:Romanian terms borrowed from French#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian unadapted borrowings from French#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian terms derived from French#COCKTAIL cocktail.

Noun

cocktail n (plural cocktailuri)Category:Romanian lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian nouns with red links in their headword lines#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian countable nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian terms spelled with K#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Romanian neuter nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from EnglishCategory:Spanish terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish unadapted borrowings from English#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoktejl/ [ˈkok.t̪ei̯l]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
  • Rhymes: -oktejlCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/oktejl#COCKTAILCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/oktejl/1 syllable#COCKTAIL
• IPA^(key): /kokˈtajl/ [kokˈt̪ai̯l]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
  • Rhymes: -ajlCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ajl#COCKTAILCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ajl/2 syllables#COCKTAIL
• Syllabification: cock‧tail

Noun

cocktail m (plural cocktails)Category:Spanish lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish countable nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish terms spelled with K#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Spanish masculine nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL^[1]

1. alternative form of cóctel

References

Further reading

• “cocktail”, in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas [Panhispanic Dictionary of Uncertainties] (in Spanish), 2nd edition, Royal Spanish Academy; Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, 2023, →ISBN

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:Swedish terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Swedish terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail. First attested in 1847.

Noun

cocktail cCategory:Swedish lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Swedish nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Swedish entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Swedish common-gender nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

2. a cocktail (mixed alcoholic drink)

   blanda en cocktail

   mix a cocktail

   Category:Swedish terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

4. a cocktail (dish)

   räkcocktail

   shrimp cocktail

   Category:Swedish terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

5. (figuratively) a cocktail (mix)

   en cocktail av läkemedel

   a cocktail of drugs

   Category:Swedish terms with usage examples#COCKTAIL

References

• “cocktail”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “cocktail”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “cocktail”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Alternative forms

• cốc tay

Etymology

From EnglishCategory:Vietnamese terms borrowed from English#COCKTAILCategory:Vietnamese terms derived from English#COCKTAIL cocktail, which is of unclear origin.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kok̚˧˦ taːj˧˧]Category:Vietnamese terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kok̚˦˧˥ taːj˧˧]Category:Vietnamese terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kok̚˦˥ taːj˧˧]Category:Vietnamese terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL
• Phonetic spelling: côốc taiCategory:Vietnamese terms with IPA pronunciation#COCKTAIL

Noun

cocktailCategory:Vietnamese lemmas#COCKTAILCategory:Vietnamese nouns#COCKTAILCategory:Vietnamese entries with incorrect language header#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with entries#COCKTAILCategory:Pages with 11 entries#COCKTAIL

1. cocktail