Julep

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Dr. Goodword
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Julep

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:43 pm

• julep •

Pronunciation: ju-lêp • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Water sweetened with sugar or syrup, used as pleasant vehicle for bitter medicine. 2. A mixed drink consisting of brandy, whiskey, or other spirit, mixed with sugar, ice, and some flavoring, usually mint.

Notes: In the US, we know this word only from the phrase "mint julep". This is a phrase we associate with a vision of a plantation owner sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of his stately, columned mansion, nursing a mint julep. In recent times, we have come to connect it to the Kentucky Derby, where the sweet alcoholic mixed drink has become the Derby's official drink.

In Play: Although cloyingly sweet, mint juleps are also alcoholic: "How many mint juleps had Julie had before she kissed the horse on the lips in the winner's circle at the Derby?" According to Kinahan Cornwallis in A Panorama of the New World (London 1859), "San Francisco was all bustle and illumination, with glittering bars filled with julep drinkers."

Word History: Spectators at the Kentucky Derby not only watch horses of Arabian ancestry, they watch them while holding a drink with a name of the same ancestry. English, as ever, borrowed this word directly from French julep, the descendant of Medieval Latin julapium. But the travels of today's word did not begin there. Latin based its word on Arabic julab, borrowed from Persian gulab "rose water". Gulab is a compound composed of gul "rose" + ab "water". The sense of a flavored alcoholic drink was first recorded in 1804. (Let's all now raise a mint julep to salute Mac McWethy, the contributor of today's Good Word.)
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David McWethy
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Re: Julep

Postby David McWethy » Fri Sep 12, 2014 10:03 am

My friendly rival, Albert Skiles, and I feel it should be pointed out that of all the 50,000 Good Word subscribers, (some living in territories where English is not the predominately-spoken language within in a hundred miles in any direction) we two—who live within 40 or so miles or so of each other in Northwest Arkansas,—had our suggested Good Words used almost back-to-back.

His was "caliphate", used this past Sunday; while mine. “julep” was chosen for Tuesday.

Is is not self-evident that this is an instance of "res ipso loquitor“ (the thing speaks for itself); an example of either the cream of the crop rising to the top; or Dr. Good Word being reduced to scraping the bottom of the suggestion-barrel?

I rest my case.
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things...."

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Slava
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Re: Julep

Postby Slava » Fri Sep 12, 2014 9:09 pm

A CC of my post to Caliphate:

Then again, of the 50k or so subscribers, a mere dozen, if that, are active and suggest words. The pool is rather small, so those who get fished out are most likely merely the largest and most likely to get caught. For good or bad. :)
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David McWethy
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Re: Julep

Postby David McWethy » Fri Sep 12, 2014 10:57 pm

Preview: Re: caliphate
I had concluded some time ago that "the pool is rather small", but, given this opportunity, felt compelled to point out that--contrary to the notion of the stereotypical "Arkie" as being an ignorant, moonshine-swilling redneck, living in a rural hamlet of two hundred or so souls (where there were only twelve last-names in the telephone directory)--a disproportionate part of the "small pool" is located in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas.

Where we would love to have you come visit (but please don't make any plans that involve you moving here).
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things...."


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