Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 152, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1920 — ‘BOOZE' GOOD ENGLISH WORD [ARTICLE]

‘BOOZE' GOOD ENGLISH WORD

Cleveland Professor Says It Has Pedigree. Longer Than Most Kings. Cleveland.—“ Booze” has had its ancient and honorable ancestry in the English language uncovered here by Prof. William H. Hulme of Western Reserve university. Labeled for generations as an etymological outlaw, and branded as such with quotation marks, Professor Hulme finds “booze” has a pedigree longer than that of most kings. Its earliest spelling, according to Professor Hulme was “bouse” and finally “booze.” “Both as a noun and'verb, the wqjd,” Professor Hulme said, “written ‘bowse* in middle English literature as far back as 1300, had the meaning ‘to drink in excess.’ About 1600 the word lost the honorable character it had and became a slang word. ‘Bousing* is recordel as early as 1529, anl ‘bouser* was used in English in 1611."