'has legs'

[Lynne Murphy]

In the discussion of 'has legs' or 'has got legs' (as in "we've yet to
see if the show's got legs"), I don't think the alcoholic sense was
discussed.

A wine or whisky 'has legs' if when you swirl it around in a glass, a
film is created on the sides of the glass, which creates long rivulets
up/down the glass--i.e., "legs" (I don't think I described that
particularly well).  You want your wine to have legs.  Perhaps the
business/show business usage of 'legs' comes from the oenophilic usage.

I was reminded of this because there's a bit in this week's _New
Scientist_ about why legs form in glasses of alcohol.  Something to do
with the evaporative qualities of alcohol, but I didn't twist my brain
enough to understand it.

Lynne

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

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