News1 min ago
Toasts
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Rituals similar to the present-day Catholic mass - involving a holy man in drinking a special potion - have existed from earliest times. Dried bread was also probably dipped into the drink, as part of the ritual. In Latin, such a morsel was said to be �tostus', meaning �baked dry'. �Toast' is the English version of the word and took on the senses of toast as in �toast and cheese' initially and later toast as in �propose a toast'. By the 17th century in Britain, pieces of toasted bread were often put into beer to improve the taste, so �drinking a toast' acquired much the same sense as thousands of years earlier.
(There's a lovely story of a well-known 17th century beauty, bathing in the pool at Bath. One admirer scooped some of the water into his goblet and drank her health with it. Another claimed he would actually jump into the water with her, saying: "Although I like not the liquor, I will have the toast!" I wonder whether he did.)