negus2
(ˈniːgəs)
[From the name of the inventor, Colonel Francis Negus (died 1732).]
A mixture of wine (esp. port or sherry) and hot water, sweetened with sugar and flavoured.
| 1743 in Etoniana iv. (1865) 70 Warming a little negus. 1753 H. Walpole Let. 4 Aug., He desired the water might be warm..; Montagu understood the dialect, and ordered a negus. 1783 S. Chapman in Med. Comm. I. 285 He was directed to drink..a little weak red wine negus. 1831 T. L. Peacock Crotchet Castle xii, He wiled away the evening with making a bottle of sherry into negus. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library I. 373 The difference between the stiffest of nautical grogs and the negus provided by thoughtful parents for a child's evening party. |
| attrib. 1848 B. D. Walsh Aristoph. 292 note, Socrates then..Filches the negus-ladle. |