Talk:cocktail

RFV discussion: May–September 2016
The "adjective" - just a noun modifier, isn't it? Donnanz (talk) 16:26, 9 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I think so. Also, the given citation is for cocktail music, which seems to be a term of its own. Equinox ◑ 16:28, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Oh right. You could move the quotation perhaps? Donnanz (talk) 17:22, 9 May 2016 (UTC)


 * ✅ Equinox ◑ 20:30, 9 May 2016 (UTC)


 * However, there does appear to be an obsolete adjectival meaning - from the cites I find I think it probably means something along the lines of dashing or ostentatiously sophisticated:
 * Kiwima (talk) 19:31, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It meets attestation standards, but it follows a general pattern by which many (any?) noun meanings can be exploited in the way we call an adjective. IMO it adds no value whatsoever to early-stage learners, ESLers living in an English-speaking country, or native speakers. It's too uncommon for an early-stager and the others can decipher this kind of thing and put it in its insignificant place. I suppose there may be some others who find this useful. DCDuring TALK 21:36, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Kiwima (talk) 19:31, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It meets attestation standards, but it follows a general pattern by which many (any?) noun meanings can be exploited in the way we call an adjective. IMO it adds no value whatsoever to early-stage learners, ESLers living in an English-speaking country, or native speakers. It's too uncommon for an early-stager and the others can decipher this kind of thing and put it in its insignificant place. I suppose there may be some others who find this useful. DCDuring TALK 21:36, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Kiwima (talk) 19:31, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It meets attestation standards, but it follows a general pattern by which many (any?) noun meanings can be exploited in the way we call an adjective. IMO it adds no value whatsoever to early-stage learners, ESLers living in an English-speaking country, or native speakers. It's too uncommon for an early-stager and the others can decipher this kind of thing and put it in its insignificant place. I suppose there may be some others who find this useful. DCDuring TALK 21:36, 9 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Are we not to follow the adjectival criteria that you have long advocated for? I don't understand your objection. DTLHS (talk) 21:55, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm not arguing that isn't being used as an adjective in those citations. I'm arguing that the adjective sense is trivial. For example, any proper noun can be used this way, eg, This argument is so DCDuring. [He] went to a grammar school and then to a university, very red brick and provincial. DCDuring TALK  22:41, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Seriously? I find nothing trivial or obvious about the connection between a scarlet coat or a brace of pistols or a huge whip --- and a cocktail. If you see such a connection, perhaps we need another definition of cocktail as a noun. Kiwima (talk) 19:33, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Have you ever heard of connotations? Do you think all connotations should be rendered as definitions? DCDuring TALK 21:41, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It's hard to know what obsolete sense is meant in those quotations and we shouldn't jump to conclusions. I agree with DCDuring. Donnanz (talk) 08:57, 11 May 2016 (UTC)

With regard to what the sense of these might be, it might be considerably less positive than currently defined: Century defines cocktail as a noun with these senses: (1) a certain bird, (2) a certain insect, (3) a horse which is not thoroughbred, hence an underbred person (citing Macmillan's Magazine, "But servitors are gentlemen, I suppose? A good deal of the cocktail about them, I should think."), and (4) an American drink. The old Imperial Encyclopaedic Dictionary likewise defines it as (1) a half-bred horse, (2) a poor half-hearted fellow, (3) a kind of compounded drink, (4) a kind of beetle. Most if not all of the citations above seem more likely to mean "lacking in manners" than "festive". - -sche (discuss) 14:45, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

RFV failed

magic cocktail and Belgian cocktail
Apparently these are illicit performance-enhancing drugs given to athletes. Equinox ◑ 08:31, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

adjective: small
small and designed to be eaten as a snack with the fingers or on a cocktail stick cocktail sausage --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:52, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

cock·tails, plural noun: gathering to consume alcoholic beverages
A gathering where alcoholic beverages are consumed, sometimes with light snacks, often early in the evening before another social event --Backinstadiums (talk) 13:05, 22 February 2021 (UTC)