Methuselah

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The Word of the Day for January 1 is:=20

Methuselah   \muh-THOO-zuh-luh\   noun
          1 : an ancestor of Noah held to have lived 969 years=20
    *2 : an oversize wine bottle holding about six liters

Example sentence:
          William's colleagues brought him a Methuselah of champagne to =
celebrate his retirement, and there was still half a bottle left after a=
ll the glasses were poured.=20

Did you know?
          What do Jeroboam, Methuselah, Salmanazar, Balthazar, and Nebuc=
hadnezzar have in common? Larger-than-life biblical figures all, yes (fo=
ur kings and a venerable patriarch), but they're all also names of overs=
ized wine bottles. A Jeroboam is the equivalent of about four 750-millil=
iter bottles (about 3 liters). One Methuselah holds about eight standard=
 bottles' worth, a Salmanazar 12, a Balthazar 16, and a Nebuchadnezzar a=
 whopping 20. No one knows who decided to use those names for bottles, b=
ut we do know that by the 1800s "Jeroboam" was being used for large gobl=
ets or "enormous bottles of fabulous content." Later, sometime early in =
the 20th century, "Methuselah" and all the other names were chosen for s=
pecific bottle sizes.





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