forty-rod

noun

cheap, strong whiskey or similar alcoholic beverage

OriginEnglish rod ← Middle English rodde ← Old English *rodd →
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Meanings

nounforty-rod (uncountable)
  1. uncountablecheap, strong whiskey or similar alcoholic beverage

    […]he got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old time

    1885, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade), Chapter V
adjectiveforty-rod (not comparable)
  1. not comparableusuallyvery strong, containing a high concentration of alcohol

    Since it had been laid out so ostentatiously on paper in 1863 it had progressed to the sum total of “two ‘she-bangs’ which fulfill[ed] all requirements of the place by dispensing bacon, coffee, tea, sugar, and calico in limited quantities and forty-rod liquor in unlimited quantities.”

    1974, Richard Bartlett, Nature’s Yellowstone, pages 151-152
    1 more example

    As a result of their laws in some of the states statistics furnish the facts that more “rot gut” whiskey is used than ever before, the milder and more harmless beverages having been in a measure embargoed by the law by reason of the fact that they cannot so easily be smuggled and handled as the concentrated “forty rod” whiskey.

    1887, William Hibbard, Rays of Reason: Or Religion Refuted, page 115

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷetwṓr
  2. Proto-Germanic*fedwōr
  3. Proto-Indo-European*déḱm̥
  4. Proto-Indo-European*déḱm̥-t(-s)
  5. Proto-Germanic*tegun(dz)
  6. Proto-Germanic*tigiwiz
  7. Proto-Germanic*fedwōr tigiwiz
  8. Proto-West Germanic*feuwar tigiwi
  9. Old Englishfēowertiġ
  10. Middle Englishfourty
  11. Englishforty
  12. Old English*rodd
  13. Middle Englishrodde
  14. Englishrod
  15. Englishforty-rod

From forty + rod, a measure of distance, suggesting whiskey so strong it can affect one from 200 meters away.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

forty-rod. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forty-rod

MLA

“forty-rod.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forty-rod. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forty-rod,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forty-rod.

Source: forty-rod on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.