The Great Debate
Fiendish_Warrior
Member Posts: 309
So which is it? Let's settle this once and for all!
- The Great Debate35 votes
- Soda31.43%
- Pop17.14%
- Sodapop2.86%
- Cola2.86%
- Coke2.86%
- Soft Drink0.00%
- Carbonated Beverage0.00%
- Fizzy (or Fizzy Drink)0.00%
- Drink (in my Barbarian tongue)5.71%
- Other?37.14%
6
Comments
I don't drink pop, but as a Michigander, I know what its really called. (pop)
No carbonated sugar waters, or drugged energy drinks with the taste of liquid liquorice gone bad. Just plain and simple tea. And don't get me started with that irksome, vile and unpleasant coffee stuff either.
For the record, I've recently changed my opinion on this. I used to think "soda" until it occurred to me that "cola" is the only word that shows up in both of the big two's names (Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola). And since they relied on deriving extracts from the Kola Nut, it makes sense.
That is, until we consider non-kola variants. Nooooo!!!! Clearly neither drinks like Mountain Dew nor Sprite can justly be classified as colas. Why did I do this to myself????!? Now I am back to square one after having thought through it further. :le sigh:
Yes, there are certain sodium bicarbonate beverages introduced prior to the 1920s but these were marketed as medicinal and not for leisurely consumption.
Going through your list,
Soda is short for Sodium
Pop refers to the beverages being served and mom and pop shops.
Sodapop joins the two
Cola is a type of Sodium Bicarbonate beverage and Coke is a brand name of that type.
Soft Drink refers back to Alcoholic beverages as something like Rum is a hard drink. A soft drink is one that is alcoholic free or an alcoholic replacement.
Carbonated beverage is close but you can drink them flat (non carbonated or the gas has been released from the liquid.
Fizzy is slang and refers to Carbonation.
Drink can refer to anything being consumed liquid format.
End of debate.
For one, references to soda water and soda pop extend at least as far back as the early 1800s, where they were not sold strictly for medicinal purposes but were seen as an interesting novelty. The drinks were the product of adding flavorings, herbal extracts, natural sweeteners (like honey), and / or fruit juices to carbonated water. Granted, some of them were sold in pharmacies and touted as health drinks due to specific additives and supposed medicinal benefits, but they were also already showing up in ice cream parlors and soda shops by the mid 19th century.
Now, not to nitpick and maybe you just wrote in haste, but "Soda" is specifically short for "Sodium Bicarbonate," what you mentioned above. Baking Soda, for example, is Sodium Bicarbonate, which is a very different chemical from plain old Sodium. But this also leads to the second point, which is that none of the beverages were effervescent because of Sodium Bicarbonate; it was because of Carbon Dioxide. That was a misconception by people, associating the fizzy properties of Sodium Bicarbonate with the fizziness of carbonated water.
"Pop" is an onomatopoeia for the sound that carbonated beverages would make when they were opened. They used to be corked.
"Sodapop" is obviously a blend word. Correct.
"Cola" again refers to the Kola Nut, which was used to flavor and color beverages.
"Coke" is short for and refers to the Coca Leaf extracts that were used in some of the beverages.
That's mostly true about "Soft Drink," although it can also refer to a beverage that has very little alcohol as well. Traditional methods of introducing Carbon Dioxide used fermentation, causing just a fraction of alcohol to get introduced into them. It was considered a trivial amount.
"Fizzy" is indeed slang, but is another onomatopoeia for the sound that an effervescent liquid makes and is a variation of the proper word "fizzle."
I agree with the rest, but I fail to see how citing the origin of words ends any debate. The question is, "Which word reigns supreme?" It's not, "From where did these words come?" It's clearly totally subjective, but it's also presented in fun. In other words, in linguistic Highlander, which one remains after The Gathering? Or, to present it more seriously and sincerely, "What's it called in your neck of the woods?"
GG
Frisdrank or short 'Fris'
For those not familiar to the Dutch language, frisdrank translates literally to Freshdrink
It's pop if it is bottled/canned
Soda if it is mixed on sight (like at a movie theatre)
Its true. Trust me, I'm a rodent