Cheers!

I have often wondered why some people raise a glass with ‘Cheerio!’ as if they are saying goodbye. Can you explain this?

Gosh! Thoughts come crowding into my head.

Obviously, in this context ‘Cheerio’ is a Scottish – at least Bearsden! - development of the common ‘Cheers’, and I am reminded of the lovely folk song about the ‘cauld grey seas of Caithness’ which has the refrain “Button-up and aye be cheery; tak a dram afore ye go”.

It also occurs to me that ‘cheerio’, as in ‘goodbye’, may be related to the Italian ‘ciao’, which means both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’, and in some circumstances “here’s lookin’ at you, kid”.

The toast “cheers!” comes from the older English word cheer, which originally meant ‘face, expression or mood’. It traces back through Middle English from Old French chiere (‘face’ or ‘countenance’), ultimately from the latin cara (‘face’). Over time, the meaning broadened from someone’s expression to their emotional state and then to general good spirits or merriment.

‘Cheers’ is simply an abbreviation of ‘be of good cheer’, and certainly by the early 18th century was associated with convivial occasions involving food and drink, although a more common toast was ‘good health’ until the early 20th century.

Very many languages toast ‘health’. Scots Gaelic has ‘slainte’ (to which the correct reply is ‘slainte mhor’, ‘great health’); Saxons had ‘waes hail’, Goths ‘hails’. French has ‘sante’, German ‘gesundheit’ and ‘zum wohl’, Spanish ‘salud’, Italian ‘salute’, Russian ‘nazdrovye’, Japanese ‘kenko’ – and so on. It occurs to me that, especially when applied to spirits, ‘good health’ may recollect the medicinal properties of aqua vitae!

But why should it be referred to as a ‘toast’?

In their daily magazine, The Spectator, published between March 1711 and December 1712, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele claimed through the persona of ‘Mr. Spectator’ that the association of ‘toast’ and alcohol was owing to the common practice of adding a small piece of toasted bread to wine or ale to improve its flavour. By the time they were writing, the meaning of ‘toast’ had shifted from the bread to a celebrated courtesan being referred to as “the toast of the town” in the sense that she improved whatever company she was in.