Goose wine
Goose wine is popularly the joking name for natural drinking water .
The etymology of the word cannot be clearly established. The following interpretation is most likely: In earlier times, common people with a scarce economic base kept goats , chickens and geese to improve their nutritional situation . On the other hand, the little man could not afford luxury goods such as real wine or other alcoholic beverages. Probably for this reason, in analogy to the drinking habits of the geese, the self-deprecating term "goose wine" for normal drinking water arose . The expression is first documented around 1577 in the Podagrammisch Trostbüchlein by Johann Fischart , according to which water is the wine given by God to the geese.
In Italian the term “fountain wine ” (vino di fonte) is used, the English speak of “ Adam's beer” (Adam's ale) or “ Adam's wine” . The French language knew the term "frog pig" (vin de grenouilles) for drinking water , but this is only rarely used. Nowadays the term Château la Pompe is mostly used.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Goose wine at duden.de. Retrieved July 31, 2012 .
- ↑ Johann August Eberhard's Synonymic Concise Dictionary of the German Language for everyone who wants to express themselves correctly in this language. Along with detailed instructions on how to use it effectively . Halle 1802. (13th edition by Lyon and Wilbrandt, Leipzig 1882; here cited the 1910 edition from http://www.textlog.de/38050.html ).