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The origin of the word “beer” is not as simple as might believe, and is somewhat hotly disputed in etymological circles. Here’s one possibility:

beer

O.E. beor, a word of much-disputed and ambiguous origin, but probably a 6c. W.Ger. monastic borrowing of V.L. biber “a drink, beverage” (from L. infinitive bibere “to drink;” see imbibe). Another suggestion is that it comes from P.Gmc. *beuwoz-, from *beuwo- “barley.” The native Germanic word for the beverage was the one that yielded ale (q.v.).

Beer was a common drink among most of the European peoples, as well as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, but was known to the Greeks and Romans only as an exotic product. [Buck]

They did have words for it, however. Gk. brytos, used in reference to Thracian or Phrygian brews, was related to O.E. breowan “brew;” L. zythum is from Gk. zythos, first used of Egyptian beer and treated as an Egyptian word but perhaps truly Greek and related to zyme “leaven.” Sp. cerveza is from L. cervesia “beer,” perhaps related to L. cremor “thick broth.” O.C.S. pivo, source of the general Slavic word for “beer,” is originally “a drink” (cf. O.C.S. piti “drink”). French bière is a 16c. borrowing from German. U.S. slang beer goggles, through which every potential romantic partner looks desirable, is from 1986.

But I’m actually more interested in the evolution of the word and how each language or culture expresses it. So here’s a list of how to say the word “beer” in a myriad of different languages and/or cultures, including a separate list of English slang at the bottom. If you know of one that’s missing here or is wrong, please be so kind as to drop me a note.

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Beer In Other Languages:

Afrikaans: bier
Albanian: birrë
Amharic: bira
Anglo-Norman: biere
Apache: tizwin [corn beer, according to author Elmore Leonard]
Arabic: beereh (biræ)
جعة / شراب من الشعير / جعة / المزر شراب نوع من الجعة / بيرة
Armenian: garejure, kara choor / գարեջուր
Azerbaijani: pivo / pivə /pivə
Basque: garagardoa
Belarusian: piva / піва
Bengali: beer / বিয়ার
Bislama (Vanuatu pidgin): bia
Bosnian: pivo
Braille:
Breton: bier
Bulgarian: bira / Бира / бира / пиво
Burmese: ဗီယာ
Catalan: cervesa
Cebuano: serbesa
Chechenian: jij
Chichewa: mowa
Chinese (Cantonese): pear zao
Chinese (Mandarin): pi jiu
Chinese (Simplified): 啤酒
Chinese (Traditional): 啤酒
Corellian (Star Wars): lum
Corsican: biera
Creole: bear
Croatian: pivo
Czech: pivo
Danish: øl
Dutch: bier
Dzongkha (Bhutan): ཆང་སྐོལ
English: beer
Esperanto: biero
Estonian: kesvamärjuke / õlu
Faeroese: øl, bjór
Farsi: ابجو
Filipino: serbesa
Finnish: olut, kalja, pikkutekijä / slang: olvi
Flemish: bier / slang: pint (rhymes w/hint)
French: bière / slang: une mousse (foam), une binouze
Frisian: bier
Gaelic: leann (lionn), beòir
Galician (Galego): cerveja, cervexa
Georgian: ლუდი
German: Bier
Greek: mpíra (bira), zýthos / μπύρα / μπίρα / ζύθος
Greenlandic: immaaraq
Gujarati: Bīyara / બીયર
Hausa: giya
Haitian Creole: byè
Hawaiian: pia
Hebrew: beera / באר / שכר / בירה
Hindi: biyara / बियर
Hmong Daw: npias
Hungarian: sör
Icelandic: öl, bjór
Ido: biro
Igbo: biya
Indian (Tamil): Madhubaanam
Indonesian: bir
Interlingua: bira
Irish (Gaeilge): beoir
Italian: birra
Japanese: biiru / ビール / ビア / 麦酒
Javanese: bir
Kalaallisut: baaja / immiaq
Kazakh: сыра
Khmer: Dughck / ប៊ីយេរ
Kinyarwanda: ibyeri
Kirundi: inzoga
Kiswahili: bia
Klingon: HIq / *[see below]
Korean: mek-ju (maek-joo) / 맥주 / 발포성 음료
Kurdish: bîre / بیره‌
Kyrgyz: pivo / пиво
Lakota (Sioux): m’nee-pee-gah
Lao: ເບຍ
Lappish: vuola
Latgalian: ols
Latin: cerevisia, cervisia, fermentum
Latvian: alus
Lithuanian: alu, alus
Luganda: bbiya
Luxembourgish: béier / garejure
Macedonian: pivo / пиво
Malagasy: labiera
Malay: bir / ബിയർ
Malayalum: biyar / ബിയർ
Maltese: birra
Manx: lhune, beer
Maori: pia
Marathi: Bi’ara / बिअर
Mexican: chelas / slang: birongas, cebadas, cheves, espumosas, güeras, helodias
Mongolian: шар айраг
Navajo: bizhééʼ hólóní
Neo: biro
Nepali: biyar, jad
Norse: aul
Norwegian: øl
Novial: bire
Occitan: bièra, cervesa
Ossetic: bæegæny
Old English: beor / ealu
Panama: slang: pinta
Pashto: بير او
Persian (Farsi): ab’jo / ابجو
Pidgin: bia
Pig Latin: eer-bay
Polish: piwo
Portugese: cerveja
Punjabi: bir sharab
Quechua: sirbisa / slang: bejeca, jola
Querétaro Otomi: cerveza
Romansch: biera / gervosa
Rheto-Rumansch: biera
Romanian: bere
Russian: pivo / Пиво
Samoan: pia
Sardinian: birra
Serbian: pivo
Sesotho: jwala
Shona: doro
Sindhi: بيئر
Sinhalese: Bire
Slovak: pivo
Slovene: pivo
Somali: biir
Somalian: khamri
Southern Sotho: jwala
Spanish: cerveza / slang: brusta
Sudanese: bir
Swahili: bia, pombe
Swedish: öl / slang: bärs
Tagalog (Philippines): serbesa
Tajik: pivo / пиво
Tamil: Madhubaanam / தோப்பி
Tatar (or Tartarian): bira / sira / сыра
Telugu: బీరు
Tetum: serveja
Thai: bia / ที่ขายเบียร์ / เบียร์
Tok Pisin: bia
Tongan: pia
Turkish: bira / slang: arpa suyu
Turkmen: piwa / piwo
Tswana: bojalwa
Twi: bee-ye
Ukrainian: pivo / пиво / слабкий алкогольний напій
Uighur: پىۋ
Urdu: بوزہ
Uzbek: pivo
Vietnamese: bia / rượu
Volapük: bil / bir / hodabir / vuitabir
Welsh: cwrw
Xhosa: ibhiye
Yiddish: bir / ביר
Yucatec Maya: k’áaj ja’
Zulu: utshwala

*
Notes: