Tuesday, August 27, 2024

“Orangeade” in Marcel Proust's "Du côté de chez Swann" (1913) and the history of the word “orangeade”

In Marcel Proust's "Du côté de chez Swann" (1913), Mme Verdurin offers the young pianist at her salon a drink: "Allons, donne-lui de l'orangeade, il l'a bien méritée." The "-ade" ending for fruit-flavored drinks was introduced into English through the French loanword "limonade". French Wiktionary cites an earlier "orangeade" in Alexandre Dumas père's novel "Joseph Balsamo" (1853). And the Corpus of Historical American English has a reference from an 1855 article in Harper's that marks the word's French origin: "The French are, in a similar manner, famous, from of old, for their skill in the manufacture of refreshing beverages, which they call, from the fruits that are used, orgeade, orangeade, etc." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 27 August 2024)

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