In the last two posts we looked at the etymology of the word cider and the various spellings of cider in English. This post will look at the meaning of the “hard” in hard cider.
In 1840 presidential candidate William Henry Harrison ran his “Log Cabin & Hard Cider” Campaign. Essentially he claimed he was raised in a humble a log cabin drinking common cider.
While his campaign claims weren’t accurate, the campaign was a success on several levels. Harrison became the 9th president and the term “hard cider” became more common in American English. It’s now so firmly embedded in our language that today it’s what we call almost all fermented apple juice. Americans are the only ones in the English-speaking world to use that term. Everywhere else it’s just called cider. Early Americans left off the hard too. From the earliest settlement through the nineteenth century it was simply called cider. So when did it get to be “hard”?
As it turns out, “hard cider” isn’t originally American. It appears to be British. The earliest reference to “hard cider” found so far is in the 1690 A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew dictionary, printed in London. It’s in the definition for Freeze, which is
Freeze is cheap cider used to adulterate good wine. This definition is repeated verbatim in British dictionaries throughout the eighteenth century, including
A New Canting Dictionary, 1725
The New Universal English Dictionary, 1761
The New Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1775
A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785
Blackguardiana; or, a Dictionary of Rogues, Bawds, &c., 1795
The definition for freeze, being “thin, small, hard” is curious. Since cider at that time always meant alcoholic apple juice, those words seem to be describing the character of cider. In looking up other early definitions for “hard” one finds the usual definition of firmness. Some dictionaries, though, defined it as rough. A few even defined it as a rough characteristic of drinks.
A New English Dictionary, John Kersey’s 1739 dictionary, defines hard as
Samuel Johnson’s 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language has several definitions for hard, including
In 1789 Thomas Sheridan in his A Complete Dictionary of the English Language defined hard as
Noah Webster’s 1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language not only defines hard as a character of liquors, he uses cider in his example sentence:
According to these definitions the “hard” in hard cider has nothing to do with alcohol content, but with taste.
Hard cider doesn’t appear in American records until 1786, when The New-York Packet included it in a cure for dropsy (an archaic term for edema).(1)
After the Packet published it in 1786, “hard cider” only occasionally appeared in print over the next forty years. When it did, the story suggests the cider is low-quality.(2) For example, in 1790, when a resident of Charleston, South Carolina realized the state capital would remain in Columbia, he worried that Charlestonians would be reduced to a less civilized lifestyle, including having only hard cider to drink.
The overall tone of John Woodger’s 1804 obituary suggests he preferred an exceedingly unrefined lifestyle, appropriately choosing hard cider over everything else.
Why use good cider for vinegar making when hard “cyder” would be less expensive, as Jona Rogers advertised in 1826.
This fictional 1830 humorous piece calls hard cider “dreadful.”
One ne’er-do-well trader included hard cider among his limited and poor stock.
This understanding of “hard” as rough, sour, or acidic adds a new layer to understanding Harrison’s campaign. He didn’t simply claim to drink cider. He claimed to drink the cheapest, harshest cider, just like the people did who he appealed to.(3)
None of this is to say that Americans only called it hard cider after 1840. Cider continued to be used well into the nineteenth century as the name of fermented apple juice. What remains unclear is when the word cider came to mean fresh juice and when hard cider exclusively meant fermented juice. That search continues.************************************
- As the image shows, they reprinted this from the Albany Gazette. A copy of that has yet to be located. However, it began publication in 1784, not long before the Packet reprinted the cure.
- Following their original publication, the dropsy cure and the Mr. Longswallow piece were repeatedly reprinted in various American papers over several years. I chose not to include each reference to them here.
- Like hard, the word cabin had a specific meaning too. It meant a one-room structure.
Is it fair to say that hard cider (US) and scrumpy (UK) are roughly equivalent terms?
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Great question. I hadn’t really considered that possibility, but there are a couple of similarities. Both originally meant a rough-tasting cider. And both have more recently become desirable marketing terms.
If the hard cider research is accurate, then it’s interesting that the British started with “hard” and switched to “scrumpy” to describe a rough cider. I wonder what caused that change and when it happened?
Like I said, great question. Thanks.
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I wonder if the term ‘hard’ would perhaps have been reserved for ciders made of apples with particularly acerbic tannins? Given Harrison’s populist leveraging with the term it stands to reason that the cider of his constituents might be more likely to have included apples from wayward or otherwise chance seedling trees, therefore given over to a higher likelihood of aggressive tannin structure. Purely a hypothesis, of course.
Additionally, I’ve often wondered about the corollary between the appearance fo cider as a term for fresh juice and America’s prohibition; given, I do know of orchards and press houses of the time that found successful business in selling not only fresh juice but also empty barrels. I have often wondered if the term cider for fresh juice originally came with a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say-no-more” during times of prohibition, encouraging customers to make their own cider the old fashioned way.
Have you ever uncovered any potential evidence pointing to this?
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Lief,
Thanks for your questions. Interestingly, the sources I’ve seen so far don’t speak to the apples, only the cider’s flavor. Still, I think you’re right in suggesting that he apple varieties play a role in making a cider “hard.”
As for the term “cider” for fresh juice, I don’t want to say anything too soon (posts are forthcoming), but it’s pretty clear that “cider” for fresh press predates Prohibition and cider’s relationship to Prohibition is not as bootleggy as is commonly thought.
Stay tuned and thanks again!
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Also, I would love to hear more about the presses that sold empty barrels. That is, if you have a moment to share.
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