Although February is the shortest month, it can feel like one of the longest. With the fill-dyke (bad February weather) over, beyond the March horizon you can see spring coming like the faintest glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Who knows what it will bring this year.
Last month, Twig was concerned with ways to stay warm in the harsh Newfoundland and Labrador climate. One Twig reader felt that an important way to stay warm had been glossed over and said, “Nothing takes the chill out like a good strong drink” while another reader asked, “What about hot toddies?” A third reader related a story about a group of neighbours who take a bottle of their favourite spirit out with them when they shovel, taking a slew or welt every now and then for motivation, claiming that it helps keep them warm while doing the dreaded winter chore. In response to these readers, and to adequately cover a significant and enjoyable way to keep warm in the winter months, the only thing to do is to focus this month’s Twig on alcoholic beverages. Our featured photo comes from Matt Reynolds and shows the ingredients for a great hot toddy. Visit his blog 3 Silly Hats for instructions on how to make the winter-fighting drink.
As you might imagine, when researchers were compiling the citations for the DNE, they came across many alcohol-related terms that were not specific to Newfoundland, and therefore not eligible for inclusion in the published version of the dictionary. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the term “liquor” in the sense of a “liquid for drinking”, particularly one that is fermented or distilled, dates back to at least 1300. However, the OED lists seven senses for liquor and only two of these refer to alcoholic beverages. In the DNE collection, one example of such a term is pot liquor which refers to the liquid left over after boiling meat (and sometimes vegetables or Jigg’s dinner). This usage is not specific to Newfoundland as the OED contains citations for pot liquor dating back to 1773.
Another non-specifically-Newfoundland term included in the DNE research collection is alky which can refer to grain alcohol generally. This term is found in the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang and the Historical Dictionary of American Slang with evidence of usage mainly in the U.S. in the mid 1800s. There are several citations in the DNE word-files; the most well-known one comes from Any Mummers Allowed in or The Mummer’s Song by Simani. Other citations suggest meanings that refer to alcohol which was bought in St. Pierre (or Miquelon as the word-file below attests) and then diluted or alcohol received when mummering. Most of the alky citations were collected in the 1960s, before Simani released their popular tune in the 1980s.
Other terms were rejected because of insufficient evidence, such as a single written attestation. These terms are however preserved in the collection of DNE research materials, which is currently being digitized through the DNE word-file digitization project and will eventually be available online. Of the 46,421 (out of approximately 100,000) DNE word-files that have already been digitized, nine relate to non-alcoholic senses of liquor.
The Newfoundland term constant screecher is an example of an item that was not included in the DNE since it is attested by only one written citation. This term refers to a concertina, not an alcoholic as those familiar with a screech-in ceremony might think. At one point in the screech-in ritual the participant is asked if they are a screecher (willing to drink the dark Demerara rum called Screech for which the ceremony is named). Interestingly, a screecher refers only to a howling storm or a seal-pup in the DNE.
During Prohibition, resourceful Newfoundlanders made sure they could access alcohol in a number of ways. Of course there was the Liquor trade, which has a long history here in Newfoundland. These days it seems that many people have a story about an uncle, brother, or father who was somehow connected to rumrunning and/or involved with St. Pierre and transshipment of alcohol elsewhere. These connections are evidenced as far back as the 1800s in the DNE research materials in two citations about St. Peter’s gin or St. Peter’s rum, meaning any liquor imported (legally or illegally) from St. Pierre. On the South coast, illegal alcohol was called steam. You would have been able to purchase these illegal brews at a jig-house (also known as a jig-loft) or a shebeen.
According to D. W. Prowse’s 1895 A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and Foreign Records, rum and molasses was the liquor that servants drank while wine and brandy were the drinks of those with higher social status. Of course the meaning of rum was quite broad, referring to pretty much any kind of liquor.
Another way to get alcohol, particularly during Newfoundland Prohibition (1917-1924), was to get a script from your doctor which would entitle you to alcohol for medicinal purposes. Or you could try Jakey’s gin (a hair tonic containing alcohol) if you’re particularly hard up for a drink!
Nowadays, you can get your grog legally although you might not venture out to the grog-shop to get it.
When the rum barrels were emptied, you could make swish by pouring water into the barrel and letting it stand.
If you’re short on cash, you might consider a splice or a bottle shared between two or three people. If you get your hands on some cheap wine or port, you might give pinky a try. If you picked a lot of berries last year and they’re still sitting in your freezer, maybe you’d like to try your hand at making squatum.
At the end of a long work day, it can be nice to get home and relax with a glass of your favorite spirit. This is known as the evening; it is one of three drinks allotted to a tradesperson, according to the DNE, the others being the morning and the eleven (also known as a dawn). These two early drinks for those who just don’t want to wait until the evening could alternatively be called bevers.
Chowder is typically associated with a hot bowl of goodness to warm you up on a cold day, but if you’re at sea and having chowder or chouder-beer, it might be a concoction of spruce boughs and molasses to help ward off scurvy. This drink is also known as spruce beer.
If you know an indiscriminate drinker who doesn’t really care what they drink, but they’ll drink lots of it, you might say of this person “Sure, they’d drink it off dead Nelson”. This saying references a legend that has been around for hundreds of years where a body packed in rum was sent home for burial but seamen tapped and drank from these casks of rum, unaware that there were bodies inside.
Many of you might know keg as a noun denoting a container for alcoholic beverages, especially beer or rum. In Newfoundland English, keg can be used as a verb. In its first sense, kegging or cagging means to swear off alcohol. In its second sense it appears in the phrase ‘keg/cag out’ meaning to pass out from drinking too much of the bung-your-eye or hard liquor. This second sense is linked to the expression keel out.
Here’s hoping that the winter chill doesn’t entice you to drink too much lest you end up in the dawnies!