Origins

High Time for a Highball?

by S. D. Liddiard

I was sitting comfortably in my living room last week contemplating the nature of non-existence, when a close friend disturbed my tranquillity by banging on my door. She was in high dudgeon. Apparently some barbarian had insulted her by spurning her company at a delicate time. She was so enraged that I half expected her to demand satisfaction of the poor oaf in the town square at high noon.

I did my best to calm and console her. Soothing words and sympathy had little effect, until I offered her a highball. I make a devastating highball. It contains vodka, Tia Maria, Peach Schnapps, cranberry juice, and tonic water (the proportions are a secret). I serve it in a tall, thin glass over lots of ice, with a slice of lime and a sprinkling of granulated sugar. I call it a Pacifier.

After we had consumed our highballs (because it would be impolite to make someone drink alone), my friend began to calm down. Her anger with the cad who had so offended her began to subside. She climbed off her high horse and granted that, perhaps, she was partly to blame for the perceived slight.

To help my friend regain her normally composed demeanour, I took her to the Café Henry Berger for a fine meal. It's the best restaurant in town. I won't tell you how much it set me back, but we were really living high off the hog. After dinner, we were in the mood for a highbrow pursuit, so we managed to get standby tickets to Don Giovanni, which was playing at the National Arts Centre.

We finished the evening in a disposition so much improved that, after another highball or two, we got up to some high jinks.

As you can see, it was a day of ups and downs, although you have to admit that there were a lot of highs. "But where do these highs come from?" I can hear you asking. Well it's high time that I give you an explanation.

High dudgeon is a feeling of intense anger, resentment, or offence. No one knows for sure where the word dudgeon comes from. It may have evolved from an Italian word meaning "to overshadow." Standing in the way of someone's sunlight has caused offence since at least the time of Diogenes. Alternatively, dudgeon is an obscure word for the handle of a knife. It may be that the act of reaching for one's knife when offended (in less civilized times) gave rise to this usage.

High noon has long been associated with a crisis or confrontation. The classic western film of that name is not the origin, however. The term has been used this way in English literature since the 14th century.

A highball is a long, alcoholic drink. The name originated in the United States in the1890s. Highballs were so named because they came in tall glasses. In that era, for reasons I have been unable to discover, bartenders called glasses "balls."

To get off one's high horse means to abandon arrogance and scorn. In Medieval England, the gentry usually rode great chargers to battle and to tournaments. These horses were at least a hand taller than the average steed. Social superiority, and the arrogance associated with it, came to be associated with these high horses.

To live high off the hog means to live well. The best cuts of meat on a hog — ham, pork chops, tenderloin, and spare ribs — are high up on its sides. The lower parts of the hog — pig's feet, knuckles, and jowls were traditionally much cheaper. This expression originated in the southern United States in the 18th century.

The term highbrow was popularized to describe intellectuals by New York Sun reporter Will Irvin in 1902. He based his contrivance on the mistaken assumption that people with high foreheads had bigger brains and were, therefore, more intelligent and intellectual than those with low foreheads.

High jinks, meaning fun and games, was originally the name of an ancient drinking game. As anyone who has played a drinking game knows, much drunkenness usually ensues. The antics and mischief of this game's players gave rise to the expression. Sir Walter Scott described the game in Guy Mannering in 1815.

I hope this humble dissertation has elevated your understanding of some of the language's loftier expressions to a more exalted level.