club soda / seltzer / soda water

[Lynne Murphy]

Some of us have given conflicting info on which of these has sodium in
it.  The dictionaries don't seem to be really clear on it either (the
defs below are paraphrases).  Conclusions:  Soda water may/used to have
sodium bicarbonate in it.  Club soda is soda water (US), but not
necessarily with sodium bicarb.  Seltzer used to be naturally
effervescent mineral water (named after a spring in Germany), but now
it's mostly just carbonated water (and the word is dated in UK).

So, there isn't really a difference between club soda and seltzer water,
but CS is more likely to have the sodium.

Lynne

US dictionaries:

AHD:
soda water = 1. carbonated water  2.  water w/ sodium bicarbonate & acid
club soda = soda water 1  (i.e., no bicarb)
seltzer = 1.  naturally bubbly mineral water  2.  soda water 1 (i.e., no
bicarb)

MW 10th Collegiate:
soda water = 1. weak solution of sodium bicarbonate w/ acid for bubbles
2. carbonated water
club soda = soda water 2
seltzer = artificially carbonated water

UK dictionaries:

New Oxford:
soda water = soda
soda = carbonated water, originally made w/ sodium bicarbonate
club soda = N American tradename for soda water
seltzer (dated) = soda water

Collins Concise:
soda water = carbonated water
soda = soda water
Seltzer = 1. naturally bubbly mineral water 2. similar "synthetic" water
club soda isn't in Collins

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

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320