Toasts

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Expresses good wishes or honor by raising and clinking drinking glasses ; slices of bread browned by heat until crisp and often buttered
2. Offers a ceremonial or congratulatory speech usually accompanied by raising a drink ; food made from bread browned and crisped by exposure to heat
3. Celebrates an event or person by raising a glass and speaking ; thin, crisp slices of bread browned by heat and commonly served at meals

Etymology: The bread and the drink share one origin. Old French "toster" meant "to roast or grill", and it came from Late Latin "tostare", a frequentative of "torrere", "to burn or parch". The Latin perfect passive participle of "torrere", "tostus", meaning "grilled" or "burnt", gave the Late Latin verb its shape. English took the idea in Middle English as "tosten", which meant to brown or scorch something over a fire, and the noun "toast" for the browned slice followed from it. The drinking sense arrived much later. In 1674 the word was used figuratively for a woman whose health was drunk, because she was supposed to add flavour to the drink much as a spiced piece of toast was once dropped into a bumper of wine. The idea was that the lady gave the drink its savour, so the toast to her became the name for the act itself. The bread meaning, the drink meaning, and the verb for raising a glass all trace back to that single image of something being scorched and made to give off flavour.

Synonyms: cheers, salutations