John Barleycorn

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The Word of the Day for April 20 is:

John Barleycorn   \JAHN-BAR-lee-korn\   noun
     : alcoholic liquor personified 

Example sentence:
     "Eureka was, after all, the last home of Carry Nation, that ax-wielding foe of John Barleycorn, Demon Rum and all their evil ilk." (Charles Allbright, _Arkansas Democrat-Gazette_, November 19, 2003)

Did you know?
     "Inspiring bold John Barleycorn! / What dangers thou canst make us scorn!" Robert Burns wasn't the first to use "John Barleycorn" as a personification of liquor when he penned those lines in his poem _Tam O'Shanter_ in the late 1700s. The term had been part of English vernacular for more than 150 years before Burns's heyday, but the poet played a key role in popularizing it by carrying it into literature. "Barleycorn" undoubtedly became part of that euphemism for alcohol because barleycorns (that is, grains of barley) are a key ingredient in malt liquor. And "John" has long been used as a generic name or personifier in English.





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