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A cocktail is a mixed alcoholic beverage that is a combination of spirits or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. There are different types of cocktails depending on the amount and type of ingredients added. The origin of the cocktail are debated.

Oxford Dictionaries define a cocktail as “an alcoholic beverage consisting of a spirit or spirits mixed with other ingredients such as fruit juice or cream.” Cocktail may contain alcohol, sugar, and bitter/citrus fruits. When a mixed drink contains only distilled alcohol and a mixer such as soda or fruit juice, it’s a highball. Many of the official cocktails of the International Bartenders Association are highballs. When the mixed drink contains only distilled alcohol and liquor, it is a duo, and when you add a mixer, it is a trio. Additional ingredients can be sugar, honey, milk, cream, and various herbs.

Mixed drinks without alcohol that resemble cocktails are known as “mocktails” or “virgin cocktails”. The origin of the word “cocktails” is disputed. The first recorded use of a cocktail other than horse was found in The Morning Post and Gazetteer in London, England on March 20, 1798: The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that the word originated in the United States. The first recorded use of a cocktail as a beverage (probably non-alcoholic) in the United States appeared at a farmer’s office on April 28, 1803.

Cock-tail is a stimulating alcohol made of spirits of all kinds, sugar, water and bitterness – vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is considered an excellent electioneering potion, as it makes the heart strong at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is also said to be of great benefit to the democratic candidate: because the person who swallows the glass is ready to swallow any thing else.

Etymologist Anatoly Lieberman confirms as “highly probable” the theory developed by Låftman (1946), which Lieberman summarizes as follows: It was customary to control the tails of outbred horses, called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails. In a broader sense, the word “cocktail” was applied to a vulgar, unprincipled person, rising above his position, occupying the position of a gentleman, but not having a gentleman’s upbringing. Låftman came to the conclusion that the cocktail is an acceptable alcoholic drink, but diluted, and not “purebred”, something that “raised above its station”. Hence the extremely appropriate slang word previously used to refer to inferior horses and sham gentlemen.

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