toddy
/ˈtɒdi
/noun (plural toddies) [mass noun]
1A drink made of spirits with hot water, sugar, and sometimes spices: a hot toddy [mass noun]: they drank even more toddy...
- On Christmas Eve, people eat Lenten foods (no meat or dairy products) and drink hot toddies (warm brandy with honey).
- Many operators have moved beyond the standard coffee-based drinks to include cutting edge drinks like chai latte and reborn traditionals like hot toddies, spiked cider and mulled wines.
- I dissolved some aspirin, swigged it, and then sat back to enjoy the first of several hot rum toddies, sipping gratefully, huddled by the big radiator in the kitchen.
2The naturally alcoholic sap of some kinds of palm, used as a beverage in tropical countries.The latest technology transfer under process is the process of making sweet palm toddy or neera....
- Men engage in open sea and lagoon fishing from canoes as well as the gathering of coconuts and palm toddy and the more strenuous forms of cultivation.
- He called me over and passed me a small bottle of toddy - the fermented and alcoholic sap - to taste.
Origin
Early 17th century (in sense 2): from Marathi tāḍī, Hindi tāṛī, from Sanskrit tāḏī 'palmyra'.
Some palm trees have a sugary sap that is drunk in parts of Africa, South India and the Philippines, especially when fermented into an alcoholic drink. This was the original toddy. The word comes from the Indian languages Hindi and Marathi, and goes back to a Sanskrit name for an Asian palm, the palmyra. Travellers brought it back to the colder climate of Britain, and the hot toddy of whisky or some other spirit with hot water, sugar, and spices has soothed many a cold since the late 18th century.