Bragget

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old alcoholic beverage made from ale or mead sweetened with honey and flavored with herbs or spices
2. A spiced, honeyed drink from medieval Britain, brewed from ale or mead with added herbs for flavor
3. A historic sweet fermented drink combining honey with malt liquor or mead and aromatic herbs

Etymology: Bragget is a spiced ale, and its name comes from Wales. Middle English "bragot" was borrowed from Middle Welsh "bragawt" or "bragaut", a word for a drink made from malt, and the Welsh term in turn rests on "brag", meaning malt itself. So the English word for this honeyed, herbed beverage is a record of medieval trade and drinking customs crossing the border, with the Welsh noun naming the grain before the drink. The English form appeared in Middle English under spellings such as "bragot" and "braket", showing how loosely scribes rendered an unfamiliar foreign word. Because the drink was made from malt and flavoured with spices, the name stuck to it even as ale-making changed around it.

Synonyms: mead, metheglin