Chrysti The Wordsmith: Growler - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. Attention home brewers brewpub and microbrew aficionados. How many times have you wondered about the origin of the word growler. For those of you unfamiliar with the industry a growler is a two quart glass container for micro brewed beer designed to be filled consumed and returned for refills. Today's growlers are essentially glass jugs with screw tops but a century ago a growler was a simple metal two quart bucket with a wire handle saloon keepers filled these pails with draft beer for customers who preferred to drink at home. In cities across turn of the century America young boys were often employed to fetch and deliver buckets of beer and errand dubbed rushing the growler or working the growler. Both of these expressions have been in American print since the late eighteenth hundreds. The Atchison globe of November 14th 1884 reads in New York people of the working class send out a pitcher for beer in the evening. They call it working the

Growler and in the Atlantic Monthly for February 1899 people who rush the growler are not worthy of charity and there is a certain justice attained when they go to the poorhouse. Of course you're waiting to hear the etymology of the word growler itself. Alas its origin is unknown but that hasn't stopped word watchers from their speculations. Here's some of these next time. Christy the wordsmith Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.