(GRAND FINALE BEFORE THE NEXT LIBATION)
By Anatoly Liberman
Toasting, a noble art, deserves the attention of all those (etymologists included) who drink for joy, rather than for getting drunk. The origin of the verb to toast “parch,” which has been with us since the end of the 14th century, poses no problems. Old French had toster “roast, grill,” and Italian tostare seems to be an unaltered continuation of the Romance protoform. Tost- is the root of the past participle of Latin torrere (the second conjugation) “parch.” English has the same root in torrid and less obviously in torrent, from torrens “scorching, said of streams; roaring, rushing”). A cognate of the root tor- can be seen in Engl. thirst, a most appropriate word in the present context. Kemp Malone (1889-1971), an eminent American scholar, equally proficient in modern linguistics and medieval literature, once reclassified the senses of the verb toast “parch,” as given in the Oxford English Dictionary, and came to the following conclusion:
“…throughout, the verb means the same thing: ‘to heat thoroughly’. This has always been the basic meaning of the word, but in modern times the process of toasting has come to be restricted to a beneficial application of heat. The source of this heat in early times was either the sun or an open fire, but later uses of the word indicate that toasting may be effected by any source of heat found suitable for the purpose, as an electric current or blasts of hot air.”
This is probably true, but it tells us nothing about toasting occurring at banquets, and yet, from an etymological point of view, it must be the same word.
As usual, popular books and the Internet give lots of anecdotal information about the origin of toast “drinking a guest’s health,” without disclosing their sources, but etymologies unsupported by exact references should never be trusted, for authors tend to copy from one another and thus produce an illusion of consensus and solid knowledge, where a critic easily discerns a Ponzi scheme in historical linguistics. One thing seems to be certain, however: from early on, people put a piece of charred bread at the bottom of a wine glass. Whether this ingredient added flavor, removed flavor, or disguised the presence of poison in the container is less clear. I will quote part of a statement by a professor of chemistry, as given in the periodical Comments on Etymology (January 19, 1990):
“My understanding of the origin of toast is that the French had a custom of floating spiced bits of toast on various drinks (including coffee and tea) on festive occasions. It is certainly possible that some spoiled wines were served this way, so that the spoilage could be hidden by the spices, and also so that the toast could absorb some of the odors…. While charcoal and probably toast can remove ethyl acetate, this is a short-term solution because they are not very effective at removing acetic acid. The primary use of charcoal in the wine industry is the removal of unwanted color and some off-odors.”
It is thus safer to forget for the time being the antiquity and the Middle Ages and start with the 18th century. The main revision of Samuel Johnson’s famous 1755 dictionary was made by H. J. Todd, who expanded Johnson’s etymologies and added a good deal of new material to the great work. He pointed to the now well-known passage from Tatler (June 4, 1709). It has been repr