Adam's ale
- noun
- /ˈædəmz eɪl/
- Archaic
:
agua
- After a long jog, all he wanted was a glass of Adam's ale to quench his thirst.
Examples
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We toasted the hike's success with pure Adam's ale from the mountain spring.
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Would you like some Adam's ale?
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Some old writers would praise Adam's ale instead of wine or beer.
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I always drink Adam's ale with my meals.
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After a long jog, all he wanted was a glass of Adam's ale to quench his thirst.
-
Some old writers would praise Adam's ale instead of wine or beer.
-
We toasted the hike's success with pure Adam's ale from the mountain spring.
Synonyms
9
1.0
Water that comes from under the ground and is safe to drink
Surface Forms
Morphology
Adam's + ale
The meaning 'water' is not transparently compositional from 'Adam's' (a biblical name) + 'ale' (a type of beer); knowing those words would likely suggest a possessive beer, not drinking water. Understanding that 'Adam's ale' humorously/archaically means water requires cultural or historical knowledge (that Adam had only water), so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not predict the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
The noun Adam's ale may come from a simple joke: Adam's points to the first man in the Bible and ale was an old word for a drink. People imagined Adam's drink was plain water, so today Adam's ale means 'water'.