English
Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew comes from English dew ‘illegally distilled whiskey’.
- English1500–presentdew‘illegally distilled whiskey’
- Englishearliest quotation 2003Mountain Dew
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- English1500–presentdew‘illegally distilled whiskey’
- Englishearliest quotation 2003Mountain Dew
Earliest quotation: 2003, Mat Hoffman with Mark Lewman, The Ride of My Life: “In 1985 a Mountain Dew commercial started popping up…”
Made of the words Mountain + Dew
Proto-Indo-European *men- ‘to stand out, tower’
…
Latin mōns ‘mountain, mount’
Early Medieval Latin montānia
Anglo-Norman muntaine
Middle English mountayne ‘a mountain’
English Mountain
Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- ‘smoke, haze’
Proto-Germanic *dawwaz ‘dew, moisture’
Proto-West Germanic *dauw ‘moisture’
Old English dēaw
Middle English dew
English Dew
Every English word from English dew
Today it means
noun A brand of citrus-flavored, carbonated, heavily caffeinated beverage.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English dew / Mountain Dew