The word mocktail refers to a carefully crafted non-alcoholic drink. A listener feels that such beverages should have a more positive name that doesn’t refer to what they lack. Is there a better term for these concoctions? Do you have a better word than, say, hentail or near beer? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Names for Mocktails but More Inviting”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
We heard from Kelly Hayes in Carson City, Nevada, who says that she recently stopped drinking alcohol. But she’s irked by the term mocktail. She says most other words to describe a beverage without liquor are negative. So I’m looking for a positive phrase or word.
And Grant, I’m sort of irked by the word mocktail as well. I mean, if you invite people over for an evening of mocktails, I think somehow that suggests there’ll be something missing when actually these drinks can be quite sophisticated and complex and an end in themselves. And I was surprised to learn that the word mocktail has been around since at least the 1930s. But I’m wondering if other people would like an alternative to the word mocktail.
Yeah, I don’t feel like they need a separate name. For example, you can have artisanal sodas and they are outstanding. And artisanal sodas come with high-quality flavored syrups and high-quality carbonated water, and you add fruit to them in a fancy glass, and that’s a heck of a drink. And it’s basically the equivalent of a mocktail, but it doesn’t need to be called a mocktail. It’s just a fantastic soda.
But if you’re specific about what you’re going to be serving, I think what she’s looking for is a name for a drink that has its own identity, sort of like vegan or vegetarian. It doesn’t mention what it doesn’t have. The best alternative I’ve seen is hentail. I like that.
Oh, hentail. We’re for hentails. Yeah, sure. I mean, the alternative, I think, is just to reclaim the word. You know, so many words get reclaimed, words that initially sound negative. But I’m wondering what our listeners think about that.
Absolutely. If you’ve got an alternate name for drinks that ordinarily have alcohol, but in this case don’t, something other than a mocktail, we’d love to know, particularly if it’s something real that you’ve heard out there in a while.
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