Word of the Day
ealu
Ealu
Old English
Old English/ˈæɑ.lu/Modern English/eɪl/
“Before hops arrived in England, every beer was ale — and the word that named it is older than English itself.”
The Old English word ealu meant a fermented grain drink brewed without hops. It descended from Proto-Germanic *aluth-, which likely traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'bitter' or 'intoxicating.' The Sumerians brewed beer by 4000 BCE, but the Germanic peoples had their own brewing traditions, and their word for the product was ancient.
5 stops · from Northern Europe to Global