Meaning
A person who mixes and serves alcoholic drinks at a bar.
Synonyms
Mixologist, bar chef, bar keeper, bar master, barman/maid, bartender.
Used by
The aforementioned persons, those in the industry and journalists.
Context
At the bar and in cocktail manuals.
Etymology
Cocktailian is, of course, derived from cocktail. The term is thought to have been coined by American drinks writer Gary Regan (whose website, thecocktailian.com, is under construction). It is also used by The Cocktailian Gazette, which is an e-magazine from Ardent Spirits.
Handily, it can be used as a noun or adjective (although its form means that it is correctly used as an adjective). Therefore, a cocktailian may mix your cosmopolitan, but you may also go for a cocktailian refreshment after work. Cocktailian is the preferred American term; mixologist is the British equivalent. Both terms were invented after the cocktail, last seen in the Tom Cruise film of the same name, was dragged back in fashion by media
role-models, the growth of style bars and drinks manufacturers.
As cocktails became more fashionable, the people who made them acquired kudos by-proxy. Mixing drinks became a craft or art - even a science, as implied by mixology - to be practised mainly by men with heavily-styled hair and a black shirt.
The accompanying re-naming of jobs echoes an earlier renaissance in coffee drinking, where fashion and coffee chains, unable to tolerate the mundane, required that waiting staff be known as baristas. In both cases, the intention is to elevate the status of the basic job, which is arguably made easier with bartenders given that cocktails are inherently glamorous.
Do say
''I have a cocktailian hangover.'' This is much higher-class than a run-of-the-mill hangover.
Don't say
''So you mix-breed cockatoos? By shaking them?''
Will it last?
Longer than a cosmopolitan, but shorter than a Long Island iced tea.
What's next?
The next drink-based shift will be towards Bovril beef concentrate or beef tea in its liquid form. Makers and dispensers of this brew will be known as beef architects.
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