highball

[Clark Whelton]

I remember discussing American slang with Brooks Quimby, professor of speech
and rhetoric at my alma mater, Bates College.  He mentioned several words
that come from railroading, and said a "highball" was a fast freight and
meant any drink intended to get you drunk in a hurry.  If used to describe a
woman, it meant someone with whom a man could "get there in a hurry."
"Diesel" meant the same thing.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerald Cohen" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: highball


> At 4:01 PM -0500 3/5/02, James A. Landau wrote:
> >In a message dated Sun, 3 Mar 2002  4:07:47 PM Eastern Standard
> >Time, Gerald Cohen <gcohen at UMR.EDU> writes:
> >
> >>      Whoever invented the drink-term "highball" might have first heard
> >>  this term somewhere else (railroad? poker? carnies?) and then applied
> >>  the non-alcoholic term to the drink due to the high glass it was
served
> >>  in.
> >
> >A couple of Web pages say that the drink got its name because it was
> >a favorite drink of railroad workers (one even makes the
> >preposterous claim that the railroad signal was named after the
> >drink).  I have seen no evidence that railroaders drank this
> >particular drink, but it is a plausible suggestion:  "highball" =
> >"full speed ahead" suggesting "full speed ahead to the bar" etc.
>
>      "Highball" (drink) might plausibly derive from the R.R.
> "highball"-signal although I too wonder whether railroaders actually
> drank highballs with any frequency. More likely, the drink was
> invented and named by a bartender familiar with the railroad term.
>
>       Barry Popik's research has turned up two candidates for this
> honor. R.C. Magill of St. Louis and Patrick Gavin Duffy (evidently of
> NY). The latter possibility seems particularly attractive, although
> it is not yet conclusive.
> If we only had some evidence linking Duffy with railroad workers, we
> might have our man. Below my signoff is an excerpt from Barry's June
> 1, 2000 ads-l message:
>
> ---Gerald Cohen
>
> >       This is from The Official Mixer's Manual (New York, 1934) by
Patrick
> >  Gavin Duffy, pg. VIII:
> >       'It is one of my fondest hopes that the highball will again take
its
> >  place as the leading American drink.  I admit to being prejudiced about
> >  this--it was I who first brought the highball to America, in 1895.
Although
> >  the distinction is claimed by the Parker House in Boston, I was finally
given
> >  due credit for this innovation in the New York Times of not many years
ago.'
>