Negus

Colonel Francis Negus died in 1732. During his lifetime, he mixed port wine with hot water, sugar, lemon juice, and nutmeg, producing a drink milder than straight port and warmer than cold wine. The drink was called negus, after its inventor. This is one of the few drink etymologies that is completely straightforward: a man made a drink, people called it by his name, and the word stuck.

Negus became standard at English social gatherings throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was the drink served at balls, assemblies, and public dinners — occasions where full-strength wine might lead to incidents. Jane Austen's characters drink negus. Charles Dickens mentions it in multiple novels. In The Pickwick Papers, negus is served at a Christmas party. The drink occupied a specific social niche: respectable, warm, moderate, suitable for mixed company.

The drink was also given to children and invalids. Watered, sweetened wine was considered medicinal in an era when water was suspect and milk spoiled quickly. Negus was warm enough to soothe, sweet enough to please, and weak enough to give to a sick child without guilt. The colonel's after-dinner drink became nursery medicine.

Negus disappeared in the early twentieth century. Central heating made warm drinks less necessary. Reliable water supplies made diluted wine redundant. The word survives only in historical novels and period recipe books. Colonel Negus is remembered for nothing else. His military career, his political life, his family — all forgotten. Only the drink kept his name alive, and now the drink is gone too.