History of the word “Beer”

With summer in full force and hot day after hot day, we think that the time is just right to pay some attention to one of the most preferred ways to keep cool – beer.

It is worth to mention that according to historians, the roots of beer can be traced 6000 years back to ancient Sumerian tribes, who even had a goddess of beer, named Ninkasi.

As for the English word, naming that beverage, it is believed to come from the Latin verb bibere (to drink) – today most Western European (and some Eastern European, too) languages use a form similar to beer. In some Spanish and Portuguese dialects beer is called cerveza, after the Latin cerevisia. The common name for beer in most Slavic languages is pivo, meaning 'beverage'. As for the other English word for beer – ale, it is older but disappeared from the language soon after the Norman Conquest and reappeared later in history to distinct hopped malt beverages.

We bet you didn't know that. Cheers!