Adam's ale

"Adam's ale" means unadulterated water,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPdEeu7RzlUC | title=The Sterling Book of Words & Their Usages | publisher=Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. | author=Panda, Maheswar | year=1999 | chapter=8 Use of Idioms and Phrases | pages=130 | isbn=978-81-207-2006-0}} based on the presumption that the biblical first man Adam had only water to drink in the Garden of Eden.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LIcL56NQ3gsC | title=The Facts On File Dictionary of Classical and Biblical Allusions | publisher=Facts on File Inc. | year=2003 | location=New York | at=p. 7, Adam's ale | isbn=0-8160-4868-1}} Common variations are "Adam's wine" in Scotland,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgjAJazrBWwC | title=The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | publisher=Wordsworth Editions Ltd. | author=Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham | year=1894 | page=13 | isbn=1-84022-310-3}} and sometimes simply "Adam".{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CbATAAAAQAAJ | title=Slang and its Analogues | author=Farmer, John S. | year=1891 | at=p. 20, Adam's ale | isbn=978-1440072468}} The phrase is an allusion,{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zD6xVr1CizIC | title=A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature | publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company | author=Jeffrey, David Lyle | year=1992 | chapter=Adam's ale | page=21 | isbn=0-8028-3634-8}} colloquialism, epithet, and idiom. In common use until the mid- to late 20th century, usage of the phrase has declined.{{cite web | url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/24300.html | title=Adam's ale | work=The Phrase Finder | access-date=July 14, 2015 | author=Martin, Gary}} The earliest known printed occurrence of "Adam's ale" is attributed to William Prynne's The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes, which was first printed in 1643.

Single occurrence dictionary definition sources for "Adam's ale":

• [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adam's%20ale Adam's Ale] [Def. 1]. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
• {{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=icg_AAAAcAAJ | title=The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes | author=Prynne, William | year=1643 | pages=32 | isbn=978-1130166835}}

The term "Adam's Ale" gained popularity during the emergence of the temperance movement in the 1830s.

Single occurrence sources for "Adam's Ale" in relation to the temperance movement:

• {{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DU8BAAAAQAAJ | title=Epochs And Episodes Of History | publisher=Ward, Lock, & Co. | year=1882 | at=p. 673–674 Adam's Ale and Noah's Wine | isbn=978-1172715954}}
• {{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc9OAAAAYAAJ | journal=Journal of the American Temperance Union |date=January 1837 | title=Total abstinence from all that intoxicates | pages=91, 96, 124, 151 | isbn=978-1274383778| last1=Union | first1=American Temperance }} Water is provided by nature and was therefore presumably the only drink available to the first man in the Garden of Eden; hence it was considered pure by the movement.Beggs, Thomas (1846). [https://books.google.com/books?id=NS0DAAAAMAAJ The Proceedings of the World's Temperance Convention, 1846: Held in London, Aug, 4th and Four]. p. 31. Print. During the proceedings of the World's Temperance Convention held in London in the year 1846, the Rev. Dr. S. H. Cox, hailing from Brooklyn, New York, said during his speech:

File:Philip freneau.jpg

[W]hat hurt will it do me to drink of this water?' Our father Adam had nothing better for his wedding-day, and before the earth was cursed, or sin had entered it, Paradise produced nothing better than this pure element. It was the drink of Adam and Eve when the morning stars sang together, and when the sons of God shouted for joy.

Philip Freneau wrote a poem that was an aid to the early teetotalism movement.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc9OAAAAYAAJ | title=Journal of the American Temperance Union Volume 4 Issue 6 | at=p. 96, Early Te-totalism | date=January 1837 | isbn=978-1274383778| last1=Union | first1=American Temperance }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9FpHAAAAYAAJ | title=The Science Temperance Text-Book | publisher=The National Temperance Publication Depot | author=Lees Dr. F. R. | year=1884 | chapter=6 National Intemperance and Remedy | pages=199–200 | isbn=978-1293389225}} Freneau (an American) was captured in 1780 by the British while on a voyage in the West Indies during the American War for Independence. After his release he wrote the poem called "The [Terra Cotta] Jug of Rum", criticizing alcoholic beverages. An excerpt from this literature shows a poetic use of "Adam's ale":

Single occurrence sources for The [Terra Cotta] Jug of Rum poem:

• {{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/poemswrittenand01frengoog | title=Poems written and published during the American Revolutionary War | publisher=Press of Lydia R. Bailey | author=Freneau, Philip Morin |author-link=Philip Freneau | year=1809 | at=p. 102–103, Poems on Several Occasions | isbn=978-5518915145}}
• {{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BjHZAAAAMAAJ | title=American Poetry. Freneau's Poetical Works. | author=Fairfield, Sumner Lincoln | journal=The North American Magazine | publisher=C. Sherman & Co. |date=March 1833 | volume=1 | issue=12 | pages=288–290 | isbn=978-1154128178}}

  "A spring that never yet grew stale——
  Such virtue lies in—{{Smallcaps|Adam's ale}}!"

  Later on Freneau used the phrase in a second poem concerning a legislative act prohibiting the use of spirituous liquors by prisoners in certain jails of the United States.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r18RAAAAYAAJ | title=The Poems of Philip Freneau – Volume III | publisher=The New Era Printing Company | author=Pattee, Fred Lewis | year=1907 | at=pp. 67, 126, On a Legislative Act | isbn=978-1512047042}}

{{portal|Drink}}

• Noah's wine, a contrasting term that refers to alcoholic beverages
• Eve, the biblical first woman

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{{Adam and Eve|state=collapsed}}

Category:Adam and Eve

Category:English words and phrases

Category:Temperance movement

Category:Water

Category:English-language idioms