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Relative Prevalence Of The Word For Beer In Europe’s Ten Most Spoken Languages

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europe
Today’s infographic graphs is similar to yesterday’s one showing “the relative prevalence of the word for beer in the world’s ten most spoken languages (by # of native speakers),” but instead shows the same metric for Europe. The map was also created by http://www.floatingsheep.org/2011/10/wherever-you-are-just-ask-for-beer.html”>Floating Sheep, and was a follow up to yesterdays.

Because simply mapping references to beer in the world’s most spoken languages yielded a relatively homogeneous result due to the significant number of references to “beer” and “ale” in English, we thought a more locally specific analysis would be appropriate. So we instead mapped references to beer in twelve languages spoken primarily in Europe that were not included in our earlier map. And while this map obviously doesn’t include all of the many languages spoken on the continent, these languages were chosen because of their relative prominence within a larger sample of languages.

world_beer_euro_110723
Click here to see the map full size.

Despite the usefulness of this particular grouping, it remains useful to consider how some of the most spoken languages in the world stack up to these more country-specific languages, so in the map below we reintroduce references in English, as well as references in German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, to some of Europe’s more widely spoken tongues.

While this graphic complicates the picture provided by our first map — there continues to be a significant amount of content in the expected, native languages of each country — English remains prominent throughout Europe, especially in reference to beer.

world_beer_euromajor_110724
Click here to see the map full size.

Relative Prevalence Of The Word For Beer In The World’s Ten Most Spoken Languages

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world-map-3
Today’s infographic graphs out the “the relative prevalence of the word for beer in the world’s ten most spoken languages (by # of native speakers). However, because of the fact that there were no points at which the number of references in the world’s sixth most-spoken language, Bengali, were greater than references to each of the other nine languages, we have excluded Bengali in this particular case. So while we’re sad to see Bengali left off the map, the fact that a language with 181 million native speakers has so few references to “beer” is telling of either vast inequalities in the way Bengalis are represented within the geoweb, or perhaps just their general distaste for beer.” The map was created by Floating Sheep, one of my favorite websites.

world_beer_top10_110723
Click here to see the map full size.

“Zooming in to Europe only further accentuates the relative dominance of English among these languages, with significant portions of Portugal, Spain, and Germany even showing more references to beer than in their native languages. Interesting, however, that much of France is a mixture of English and German references, even in the much more southern portions of the country.”

world_beer_top10_euro_110724
Click here to see the European map full size.

The Essential Map Of Europe & Environs

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european_union
Today’s infographic was sent to me last night by my good friend Maureen Ogle, author of Ambitious Brew, and the soon-to-be-published In Meat We Trust. She knows of my love of language and especially beer words. I have my own growing collection of the word Beer in Other Languages, but Feòrag NicBhrìde of Scotland created the Essential Map of Europe and Environs, which is essentially a map showing the various ways in which Europeans refer to beer, helpfully divided by language types or origins.

essential-map-europe
Click here to see the map full size.

Cenosillicaphobia

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beer-word
Here’s an interesting word I’ve been seeing around the internet: Cenosillicaphobia. According to some sources, the Fact-Archive and the Urban Dictionary, the word means “the fear of an empty glass,” as “commonly experienced by drinkers.”

Although I can’t find it listed in any of my regular dictionaries, it seems to fit at least. It’s not in either of my two unabridged ones, including the Webster’s International 2nd edition, which my librarian sister-in-laws tells me is the gold standard. The closest word in my O.E.D. is “cenotaph,” which means “empty tomb.” So along with “sillica” for glass, the word “cenosillicaphobia” seems to fit the meaning, the “fear of an empty glass.”

So look at the photo below. If seeing the beer glass empty causes you to shudder involuntarily, you probably have cenosillicaphobia. Luckily, a cure is as close as the nearest keg, can or bottle.

empty-beer-glass

Join Me On A Brannigan & Get Bibesy?

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beer-word
I stumbled onto yet another list of old words, this group on the Matador Network. 20 obsolete English words that should make a comeback includes some pretty cool words, like Scriptitation, which I think I engage in every single day. Scriptitation is “[a] 17th-century word meaning ‘continual writing'” But two in particular caught my eye as beer-related.

Brannigan

Noun – “A drinking bout; a spree or ‘binge’” – Brannigan was originally a North American slang word, but it is now rarely used. “Shall we go for a brannigan on Friday?” can be a more sophisticated way to discuss such activities.

I can’t imagine the root of that, unless of course there was some gut named Brannigan who was well-known for binge drinking.

Bibesy

Noun – “A too earnest desire after drink.” – “Bibesy” may have been completely made up in the 18th century and it’s unclear whether it ever made it into common use, but it could easily be used today: “Wedding guests waited anxiously for the bar to open; bibesy should be expected after such a long, dull service.”

Not sure about that one either, but there were a few other gems, too. “Twitter-light,” for example, once meant “a romantic way to refer to the hours as the sun goes down,” but I suspect would have a completely different meaning. Then there’s something I’m often accused of: Perissology. “Perissology” means the “Use of more words than are necessary; redundancy or superfluity of expression.” I completely disagree and will write a short, 10,000-word rebuttal on why it’s not true.

I’m not sure I’d vote for either of these beer words to make a comeback, but it’s always fun to find them.

Collective Drinking Nouns

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collective
Hat tip to Rob DeNunzio for this one, who used to write the beer blog Pfiff!, but has taken some time off since his second child Leo was born, almost three years ago. Happily, he knows me well enough to know that I would love this list of Collective Nouns. In case you were absent that day from school, or have the memory of Ten-second Tom (see 50 First Dates), a collective noun is “the name of a number (or collection) of people or things taken together and spoken of as one whole.” Well-known examples include a “pride of lions,” a “murder of crows” or a “school of fish.” When you think of collective nouns, it seems that most of them have to do with animals, though that’s not necessarily the only ones. There are even a few beer- or drink-related ones, such as a “round of drinks,” I was thrilled to learn. I haven’t run into these before but will be sure to add them to my quiver of arrows (see, there’s another one) for writing about beer.

  • A promise of barmen.
  • A feast of brewers.

And when my colleagues and I get together, we become a “worship of writers.” If only.

At the bottom of the list they also suggest some that may not have caught on yet, such as a “bevy of alcoholics.” I’m not so sure about that one.

In doing some further searching, other suggestions have been made, such as a “case of beer” or a “keg of beer,” but those don’t seem like collective nouns as I understand the definition. Those are simply packages that denote size, though those are tame compared to the silly beer, beers and brewers suggestions at all-sorts, a linguistic experiment.

Here’s another list of The Collective Nouns, with ones that people of submitted, a few of which are truly inspired. And Wikipedia has a list, too.

Did I miss any? Any you can think of?

Hopshackles?

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hopshackles
Regular readers will know how much of a calendar geek I am. Ever since we first moved to Oakland back in 1996, I’ve spent every New Year’s Day morning in line at either of the Pendragon/Pegasus book stores waiting for their amazing calendar sale to begin. They take every calendar that didn’t sell before December 31st from one of their book wholesaler’s warehouses and sell them at 3 for $10, no matter how big or small. We usually buy a few dozen, and have calendars everywhere, including multiple ones in many of the rooms of our home.

One of the page-a-day calendars I picked up this year was “Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten English,” which I thought would be fun, given my love of language and words. It’s based on his book and website. The very first word on January 1 was “hopshackles,” which is one I’ve never heard of.

So a little online research revealed that there’s not much out there about it, actually. Wordnik, from the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, has this definition.

n. A shackle or weight used to hobble a horse or other animal.

According to the calendar entry, it was already an obscure word in 1859, when Robert Nare wrote that “what these were, we can only guess,” and he points to the word being used in a 1570 book, “The Scholemaster” [sic]. “Some runners … deserve but the hopshackes.” I think he was talking there about Win Bassett.

So, does it have anything to do with the hops used in beer? Not so much, although the word certainly sounds like it ought to. And apparently, I’m not the only one who thought so, as Nigel Wright named his English brewery, Hopshackle Brewery, after the obscure term, and tells the story of that decision:

Where did the name “Hopshackle” originate from and what does it mean? Strangely enough I first came across the word when watching the popular T.V. programme “Call My Bluff” some years ago. What a cracking name for a brewery I thought should I ever get around to realising a life times ambition! The origin of the word “Hopshackle” is unknown, but it’s transitive verb is to hobble which has several relevant meanings.

Hobble – to walk with an uneven, unsteady or feeble gait; to hinder, perplex or tie together the legs of to prevent escape, kicking, or to regulate pace or stride. Dray horses were hobbled to ensure that they did not waste any of the valuable beer they were delivering

My OED lists the word as obsolete, and the “hop” part of the word as “obscure” and speculate it’s a combining of “hopple” and “hamshackle.” The earliest reference to it is print they have is from 1568. They define it as “a ligament for confining a horse or cow; a hopple or hobble.”

Hopshackle

So I’m glad to see the word may live on at least in the name of a brewery. Because I agree with Nigel Wright, it is a cracking great name that should be brought back from obscurity. But, of course, it’s meaning needs to be updated, modernized and made useful again. So what should “hopshackle” mean, if we’re to bring it back?

Perhaps a previously overly hoppy beer that’s had its bitterness reduced to make a more balanced beer could be said to have “put on the hopshackles.” Or the session IPAs we’re starting to see, as in “Lagunitas’ new DayTime is great for drinking with lunch, because they put on the hopshackles.” Another usage could be a synonym for restrained or balanced, as opposed to extreme beer, like “Stone Brewing’s Enjoy By IPA is a nicely hopshackled beer?

Any other thoughts, idea, suggestions? C’mon people, brainstorm!

Cage, Agraffe Or Muselet?

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muselet
Most of you already know I’m a freak for obscure words and language more generally, so I’ll always take a look at a list of curious words. One that I recently was looking over at Mental Floss included such gems as a dringle, which is “to waste time by being lazy,” perfectly describing what I was doing when I discovered that.

But the other word was agraffe, which they defined as being “the wire cage that keeps the cork in a bottle of champagne.” I’d heard the word muselet used before, usually in connection with champagne, but many brewers today also use them, though most people I know refer to them more simply as a “cage,” as in a “cage and cork,” or occasionally a “cage and crown.”
agraffe
But agraffe is a new one on me. A quick search reveals that it’s more often used to refer to a part of a piano, “a guide at the tuning-pin end of the string, screwed into the plate, with holes through which the strings pass.” Most dictionaries I looked at didn’t mention the cage usage at all. Champagne.net does offer this definition.

Literally means “staple” (as in Swingline); in Champagne, this is a large metal clip used to secure the cork before capsules were invented, typically during the second fermentation and aging in bottle. A bottle secured with this clip is said to be agrafé.

Notice they also spell it with only one “f.” Wordnik, in their listing under Century Dictionary does list this usage, as the fifth definition. “n. An iron fastening used to hold in place the cork of a bottle containing champagne or other effervescing wine during the final fermentation.”

Muselet doesn’t show up in most standard dictionaries either, but it is defined, at least, by Wikipedia:

A muselet is a wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of champagne, sparkling wine or beer to prevent the cork from emerging under the pressure of the carbonated contents. It derives its name from the French museler, to muzzle. The muselet often has a metal cap incorporated in the design which may show the drink maker’s emblem. They are normally covered by a metal foil envelope. Muselets are also known as wirehoods or Champagne wires.

Neither word is included in the “Dictionary of Beer & Brewing” (2nd ed.), but then “cage” isn’t listed in it, either.

So does anybody know? Those of you in the wine world, is either term in common usage, and, if so, is one preferred over the other? Or are they generally only used in France, perhaps? It seems more likely that they were originally borrowed from the French into English, but have since fallen out of use, or perhaps their usage lingers only in the technical jargon of Champagne and sparking wine. Anyone, anyone? Bueller.

muselet_diagram