Before leaving the subject of the British use of ale, it will perhaps amuse some of our readers to find that the very name of Britain has been derived by some from the word βρῡτον, the Greek for beer. The following extract from Hearne’s Discourses is a good instance of that reckless ingenuity in guessing derivations, for which our older school of philologists was ever so justly famed:—“There is one thing,” he says, “which upon this occasion the antiquaries should have observed, and that is our Mault Liquor, called βρῡτον in Athenæus. Which being so, it is humbly offered to the consideration of more judicious persons whether our Britannia might not be denominated from βρῡτον, the whole nation being famous for such sort of drink. ’Tis true, Athenæus does not mention the Britains among those that drunk mault drink; and the reason is, because he had not met with any writer that had { 32} celebrated them upon that account, whereas the others that he mentions to drink it were put down in his Authors. Nor will it seem a wonder, that even those people he speaks of were not called Britaines from the said liquor, since it was not their constant and common drink, but was only used by them upon occasion, whereas it was always made use of in Britain, and it was looked upon as peculiar to this Island, and other liquors were esteemed as foreign, and not so agreeable to the nature of the country. And I have some reason to think that those few other people that drunk it abroad did it only in imitation of the Britains, though we have no records remaining upon which to ground this opinion.”
It is rather unfortunate that, in the cause of science, our author did not inform us what that “some reason to think” of his in fact was. However, let us honour his patriotism if we may not his learning.
It would appear that ale and beer were different words signifying the same thing, ale being the Saxon _ealu_ and Danish _öl_, probably connected with our word oil, and beer being the Saxon _beor_. Horne Tooke, in his _Diversions of Purley_, says that “ale” is derived from a Saxon verb _ælan_, which signifies to inflame.
The word “beer” has been the occasion of some ingenuity and not a little diversity of opinion among the philologists. Goldast derived it _a pyris_, because (he asserts) beer was first made from pears; Vossius from the Latin _bibere_, to drink, thus: _Bibere_, _Biber_ and (_extrito b_) _Bier_; Somner from the Hebrew _Bar_, corn. Probably the true derivation is that which connects the word with the root of the verb, to _brew_. However this may be, the connection of the word barley with the word _beere_—denoting a coarse kind of barley—is unmistakeable. _Beer_ was originally used to denote the beverage and also the plant from which it was brewed. _Beere_ or _bigge_ is still to be found growing in some parts of Scotland and Ireland, but in England it has given place to the more refined _barley_ (_i.e._, _beer-lec_ or beer plant).