it means any soft drink, usually carbonated. This saying originally referred to a drink, usually alcoholic, of poor quality, but in some regions of the U.S. To some of us soda water might refer to вЂњa solution of water, sodium bicarbonate, and acid,вЂќ but to some, especially in Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley, it refers to carbonated water thatвЂ™s been sweetened and flavored. But in the southern region, such a term refers to a booze-free, bubbly beverage. вЂњI need a drink!вЂќ some of us might say when we crave a cocktail. If you happen to be in the Lower Mississippi Valley and someone offers you a cold drink, you can expect a non-alcoholic, carbonated, bottled beverage that wonвЂ™t necessarily be cold, at least according to one quote in DARE. This vintage phrase was chiefly used in the South, especially North Carolina. While some of us might equate tonic with tonic water, a quinine-flavored carbonated drink, in New England, it refers to a carbonated soft drink in general. Also sodey dope, sody dope, or just dope, a southern colloquialism for a soft drink. This old-timey term might have been used especially in North Carolina. To think small beer of is to think lowly of someone or something, says the Oxford English Dictionary. A 1925 quote in DARE says that вЂњeven today in the remote northern part of Maine, carbonated beverages are referred to as вЂsoft beer.вЂ™вЂќ According to the American Heritage Dictionary, small beer refers to weak or inferior beer, and, by extension, unimportant, trivial things.

This old-fashioned name was used especially in Maine. Parts of the south? Coke (even if itвЂ™s Sprite).Д«ut how about what Americans used to call fizzy sugar water? With our friends at the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), we bring you eight old-timey names for a soft drink.

Live on the west coast or in the northeast? ItвЂ™s soda. Depending on where you live in the United States, you might have a different name for a sweet, carbonated beverage.

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