forty-rod
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.87 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
very strong, containing a high concentration of alcohol
Example Sentences
- "[…]he got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old time"
- "As a result of their laws in some of the states statistics furnish the facts that more “rot gut” whiskey is used than ever before, the milder and more harmless beverages having been in a measure embargoed by the law by reason of the fact that they cannot so easily be smuggled and handled as the concentrated “forty rod” whiskey."
- "Since it had been laid out so ostentatiously on paper in 1863 it had progressed to the sum total of “two ‘she-bangs’ which fulfill[ed] all requirements of the place by dispensing bacon, coffee, tea, sugar, and calico in limited quantities and forty-rod liquor in unlimited quantities.”"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr Proto-Germanic *fedwōr Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ Proto-Indo-European *-t Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥-t(-s) Proto-Germanic *tegun(dz) Proto-Germanic *tigiwiz Proto-Germanic *fedwōr tigiwiz Proto-West Germanic *feuwar tigiwi Old English fēowertiġ Middle English fourty English forty Old English *rodd Middle English rodde English rod English forty-rod From forty + rod, a measure of distance, suggesting whiskey so strong it can affect one from 200 meters away.