root beer

• rootbeer

The term is attested since before the lifetime of Charles Elmer Hires, but he is widely credited with popularizing it much further than it had previously been; his proprietary beverage was inspired by an earlier root tea, and he planned to sell it under that name, but he changed its name to broaden the sales appeal. For more, see Wikipedia at root beer § History.

IPA^(key): /ˈɹut ˌbɪɹ/

root beer (countable and uncountable, plural root beers)

1. A beverage, most often a carbonated soft drink made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses, among other things.

   Coordinate terms: birch beer, ginger beer, root tea, sarsaparilla

   • 2002, Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes, Penguin, →ISBN:

     In 1919, when Roy Allen and Frank Wright started selling their new root beer beverage to a thirsty America, national Prohibition was taking its grip on the country. Their timing couldn't have been better. No longer able to legally drink real beer, thirsty patriots had to settle for this sweet, foamy conoction derived from roots, herbs, and berries.

2. A dark reddish-brown color, like the drink.

   root beer:  

   • 2000, Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, page 26:

     I just keep staring at all the ink we have, that wild variety of color, everything from rootbeer, midnight blue and cochineal to mauve, light doe, lilac, south sea green, maize, even pelican black, all line up in these plastic caps […]

   • 2006, Tim Lewis, Bows, Swamps, Whitetails, page 28:

     […] most of our bucks have antlers that are varying degrees of brown, from a deep rich root beer shade to walnut to even light amber.

• root beer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• rebooter, roboteer

Unadapted borrowing from English root beer.

root beer f (plural root beers)

1. root beer (beverage made with sarsaparilla root)

   Synonyms: cerveja de raiz, cerveja de raízes