This is a simple one, but likely to be apt today, after I stayed up way too late last night watching the season finale of The Walking Dead. 😉 But I took a nap first. And when my husband came in from working outside right after I got up, I said, “I’m still groggy.”

To which he replied, “You were drinking grog?”

I knew right then that this is where that word came from. And indeed, it does. Grog, in the 18th century, first meant “any alcoholic drink diluted with water.” British General Edward Vernon, you see, ordered his men’s rum to be diluted with water; he was also known for the grogram cloak he wore (grogram is a stiff, coarse cloth), so his men started calling this drink grog, after his trademark cloak. The term, coined in 1749, caught on so quickly that by 1790, taverns were often called grog shops, though the “diluted” part got lost, and grog meant any strong alcoholic drink.

Groggy, then, by 1770 meant “drunk with grog until one staggers or stumbles.” It took on the figurative sense of someone just who is staggering or stumbling without necessarily being drunk by 1838. I’m not quite sure when it shifted toward the modern meaning, but today’s dictionary entries say, “staggering from exhaustion or blows; dazed or weakened from lack of sleep.”

Now, announcement. The Reluctant Duchess releases tomorrow!!!!!!! My big giveaway will go live at some point during the day tomorrow. Not sure what time, because I still need to take a picture of the giveaway items, and one of said items needs just a bit more work. 😉 But it will definitely be up at some point, and then you’ll have two weeks to enter!