(rʌm ) adjective British, Informal. 1. odd; strange; queer.
‘Now splice the mainbrace’
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries rum was economically important in North America and Europe, being both a valuable export and a medium of exchange. Rum also became a mainstay in the British, and later in the United States, navies where it was issued as part of a sailor’s rations (compare ‘navy rum’ and navy n. 5d) and when mixed with water was known as ‘grog’. The importance of rum to sailors can be seen from the following rum-related nautical expressions:
The mainsheet was a key component of a ship’s rigging and would have been handled many times a day (compare quot. 1882 at mainsheet, n. 2); its figurative use to describe rum seems to have developed along the lines of mainstay, n. 2 in which a vital part of a ship is used figuratively for anything of importance.
Although it was such a mainstay (or ‘mainsheet’) for sailors, rum was rationed, with extra servings being given as a reward or in celebration; these occasions gave rise to the slang expressions ‘to splice the mainbrace’ and sippers. Again we can see through the colourful language, and the fact that such activities had their own slang expressions in the first place, the significance rum had in nautical life.
Finally, Nelson’s blood, another slang term for rum, may have its origin in the story of the admiral’s body being transported home in a ‘cask of spirits’. The construction, however, is commonly used to describe various drinks metaphorically, and other examples are ‘mother’s ruin’, ‘mother’s milk’, and ‘tiger’s milk’.
The second sense of rum n.2 is defined as ‘Intoxicating liquor in general’, with a note describing how it is chiefly used in polemical contexts. A number of slang and colloquial compounds have arisen from this association of rum with hard-drinking, especially in the United States and Caribbean.
During the prohibition era there was a thriving trade in illegal alcohol which in turn gave rise to more colloquial compounds: these include ‘rum baron’, ‘rum-chaser’, ‘rum fleet’, ‘rum row’, and ‘rum runner’.
What is Rum? | Everything You Need to Know About Rum Explained
FAQ
What does rum mean slang?
What does rum do mean?
What does feeling rum mean?
What is the full meaning of rum?
What does rum mean in slang?
For starters, rum may be a shortened version of the slang words “rumbullion” or “rumbustion.” These words may represent a great tumult or a type of uproar. Rum may even come from the word “roemer,” a Dutch word for a large glass. This word is pronounced “rummer,” and might be where the word rum comes from.
How much sugar is in rum?
Rum is made from boiled sugarcane juice, the molasses, through a process of fermentation and distillation. Fermentation will result in the transformation of existing sugars in the juice into ethyl alcohol, that way the rum does not contain sugar.
Why is rum called a hot drink?
Described as a “hellish, hot liquid,” early rum was rough around the edges, and the term may have been coined as combination of the adjective rum (from the Romani word meaning, ‘male, good man’) and boullion, a French term for “hot drink,” then simply shortened to rum. Got that? It’s actually the most widely accepted theory.
Is rum a definite adjective?
Related to the noun. rum (neuter rumt, plural and definite singular attributive rumme) 1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding “indefinite” form is used. 2) The “indefinite” superlatives may not be used attributively. See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.