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.
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:
-
Klingon written out:
or 