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Joined: Feb 2003
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725 |
In reply to:
My daughter (a student at Stanford) recently raised a question regarding
the English language that her colleagues and professors couldn't answer,
and it has me stumped as well: When you give someone something to eat, you
feed them. When you give someone something to drink you ___ them. What is
the appropriate word?
Many other languages have words to differentiate the two,
e.g. the Hindi "khilana" (to give something to eat), and
"pilana" (to give something to drink). In English, "feed"
serves both purposes, as in, "feeding milk to a child". But
if you really want a separate term, the closest might be
"libate" (to pour out wine in honor of a god). Perhaps you
can try extending its meaning and use it generically.
-Anu
What do you say?
We water our livestock, but not our friends or children. It seems we have no transitive verb for what would be described as "giving someone a drink."
Whaddaya think?
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Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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You're right, there is no good simple word for it. I wonder why that is. Best I can come up with is really not satisfying:
The verb hydrate has 3 senses:
1. hydrate -- (supply water or liquid to in order to maintain a healthy balance; ``the bicyclists must be hydrated frequently'' )
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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WhaddaI think? I think we *do have a word for it; we just don't use it in that context. We feed horses, we feed cows, we feed pigs, we feed children and the homeless and our relatives on Thanksgiving and Christmas and Passover. We water horses, we water cows, we water pigs. We don't water our children and the homeless and our relatives. Maybe because food takes work or money; water doesn't. When we water the livestock we transport water to them in one way or another. The (almost) youngest sprat can go to the faucet and get some water.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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no transitive verb for what would be described as "giving someone a drink."
How about to refresh?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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and there are hundreds of idioms..
wet your whistle is the first that comes to mind..
and while water is free, (so we don't water people) we do offer as mav says, refreshment, cuppa's, coffee, a nip, a cold one..
and we speak of it.. that way.. we settle things over a cup of coffee, (tea), we sat down and had a cold one..
since it rare that humans (in this day and age drink without a cup or glass, or for that matter just drink water.... we don't water--(but for our health, we might take the waters at Bath!)
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Come to think of it we water horses but we milk cows.
The only words that come close, to toast someone or to stand them(one), are both are really about something other than the provision of the drink and both imply alcohol. Perhaps because water was not ceremonially or socially important in England as it was in hotter countries.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Good point Zed. Not often in pre-polluted Britain that people would be suffering from thirst. But if they were we would 'give them a drink', which seems the shortest colloquial term that we use. As in 'Please can I have a drink Mom?'.
Which is where Coffeebean started of course!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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to refresh
Not quite. While it *can mean to give a drink (of water) to it can mean other things, as well. And one wouldn't say, e.g., "My son came home from the game all hot and sweaty, so I refreshed him."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it can mean other things, as well
True ~ but what English words can't? with a twisted enough imagination!
fwiw, I've just finished re-reading David Crystal's Language Play (1998, Penguin Book, London, ISBN 0140273859) - I agree with his central thesis that playing with language is not a post-facto use of a tool but is, rather, a central feature of communicative development in most language spheres. I've long felt (for an example to welcome Jackie home!) that Shakespeare's starting point was based on a simple pun ~ from which his lateral mind would develop whole flights of poetry and drama, rather than merely using playful language to embelish his ideas. [/detour]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what English words can't?
With or without the twisted imagination, you're right, but, other uses of, say, feed as a verb tend to be metaphorical, feed the soul, mind, etc. Another reason that occurred to me for not using water in this sense is that so often the liquid we provide isn't water. And it doesn't have to be alcoholic; milk and juice come to mind.
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