The word "cocktail" appeared in print for the first time in 1806 in a Hudson, New York, newspaper; it was described as "a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters." There are several other stories for the origin of the word, including that it refers to the color in a cock's tail. Or it may be derived from the French coquetier, meaning "eggcups", which came about in New Orleans in 1838 (not 1793, as often reported). The story may be true but happened too late to be the origin of the word): apothecary Antoine Amédée Peychaud, the inventor of Peychaud bitters, served a beverage of cognac and bitters in eggcups to his customers. The English-speaking clientele pronounced coquetier as "cocktail." Another story also claims a French origin for the word, from coquetel, a drink from the Bordeaux region introduced to Americans by French officers during the American Revolution. It is a drink that will "cock your tail."
One story claimed the word is of English origin, from the popular 17th-century English drink cock-ale, a mixture of ale, raisins, spices and a boiled cock, which is left to brew for a week or more. The American journalist H.L. Mencken found many etymological references for the word, including cock-bread-ale, a mixture of stale bread, ale and bitters fed to fighting cocks. There is also a possibility that it came from the practice of toasting the victor in a cockfight by placing the number of feathers left in the cock's tail in the drinks.
Finally, cocktail may come from the word "cocktailings", which are the dregs of various casks, drained out of the cocks or spigots, mixed together and sold as a cheap drink.
From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
