The Colbert Report: "soda water"

[Wilson Gray]

Were Colbert from NYC or LA, I'd consider that he may have meant
selzer water or some such as a possibility. But, he's from South
Carolina. In the American South, formerly, if not today, any
carbonated beverage was/is called "soda water," whether it were/be
Pepsi-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Coke-Cola, a "big Arra-C" (Royal Crown Cola),
or anything else of that class of "drank."

"Soda water" was the only term that I knew for that entire class of
beverages. There was no *could* to it. It *did* refer to any kind of
carbonated, non-alcoholic, bottled beverage whatsoever. That's why I
consider Colbert's "soda water" inside of the context of
Northern-style "soda pop" and within the context of flavored
carbonated beverages, to be a slip of the tongue and not an
out-of-context reference to seltzer water, sparkling water, or other
drinks of that ilk.

BTW, do Northerners consider seltzer or other flavorless carbonated
drinks to be "(soda) pop"?

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: The Colbert Report: "soda water"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5/14/2009 10:49 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>>
>>Did anyone else notice the inadvertent use of (old?) Southern "soda
>>_water_" by Colbert, a native of South Carolina, in an environment in
>>which he otherwise was using "soda _pop_"?
>
> Was it clear he meant the flavored stuff, and not "seltzer"? Â The
> latter is what I think when I hear "soda water". Â (The OED agrees
> with me, on both "soda pop" and "soda water".)
>
> Or, Wilson, are you saying that in the (old?) South "soda water"
> could refer to flavored carbonated drinks?
>
> Joel
>
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