[Ads-l] _Mother's milk_ "German beer"

[Margaret E. Winters]

GB Shaw in Pygmalion (Act III, 1916) has Eliza, trying to make polite small talk say "gin was mother's milk to her".


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MARGARET E WINTERS
On Leave
Office of the Provost
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2016 12:33:27 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: _Mother's milk_ "German beer"

Not sure the Berliner Kindly connects to Kris Kringle, which comes out of
the tradition of the old man (Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, St. Nicholas) who
gives presents.

The Christkindl tradition is about a child who gives presents. It was a
Protestant move to reject the above St. Nicholas tradition.

On Sep 6, 2016 9:58 PM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Subject-line of a letter to a military "alumni association":
>
> "[78thASA] _Mother's Milk_ - Berliner Kindl"
>
> The 78th U.S. Army Security Agency Special Operations Unit was station in
> Berlin and _Berliner Kindl_ was one of the local brews. "Mother's milk" was
> the common term for German beer, in general. It was applied to Löwenbräu,
> the first time that I heard it used, in 1961.
>
> Some may recognize _Kindl_ as the source of "[Kris] Kringle."
>
> --
> -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
>   u
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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