Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Five

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

Bub

This is defined by the dictionary as “a strong beer”, and a couple of dictionaries say that the word derived from the sound of drinking. I’m not entirely convinced….. Sometimes the definition is a little different, such as “an alcoholic malt liquor”. There is a phrase that is “bub and grub”, but I think that derives from champagne, or a bubbly drink, rather than its archaic meaning. It is though perhaps where the second half of the word syllabub comes from.