beer

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Meaning

1. An alcoholic drink fermented from starch material, commonly barley malt; often with hops or some other substance (like gruit) to impart a bitter flavor.
2. A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc.
3. A solution produced by steeping plant materials in water or another fluid.
4. A glass, bottle, or can of any of the above beverages.
5. A variety of the above beverages.

soap-suds

cerevisia

palmwine

kangaroo piss

amber fluid

neck oil

alcoholic beverage

steinber

bottled beer

draught beer

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bɪə/

From Middle English bere, from Old English bēor (“beer”) (Oxford OED notes: "rare, except in poetry"), from Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *beuzą (“beer”) (putatively from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeusóm), meaning “brewer's yeast”. However, also see the "beer" entry on OED (q.v.), which links a connection to monastic Vulgar Latin *biber (“a drink, beverage”), from Latin bibere (“to drink”). Samuel Johnson in his famous 18th-century A Dictionary of the English Language guessed it was from (unattested) Welsh *bîr; he distinguished it in his time from ale — the ancient usual word — by beer being older-aged and/or smaller. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bjoor, West Frisian bier, German Low German Beer, Dutch bier, German Bier, Icelandic bjór (“beer”).