Beer Definition

bîr

beers

noun

A fermented alcoholic beverage brewed from malt, usually flavored with hops.

American Heritage

An alcoholic beverage made from grain, esp. malted barley, fermented by yeast and flavored with hops; esp., such a beverage produced by slow fermentation at a relatively low temperature.

Webster's New World

A fermented beverage brewed by traditional methods that is then dealcoholized so that the finished product contains no more than 0.5 percent alcohol.

American Heritage

Any of several soft drinks made from extracts of roots and plants.

Ginger beer.

Webster's New World

A carbonated beverage produced by a method in which the fermentation process is either circumvented or altered, resulting in a finished product having an alcohol content of no more than 0.01 percent.

American Heritage

Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Beer

Noun

Singular:

beer

Plural:

beers

Origin of Beer

From Middle English bere, from Old English bēor (“beer”), from Proto-Germanic *beuzą (“beer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰews-, *bews- (“dross, sediment, brewer's yeast”). Cognate with West Frisian bier (“beer”), German Low German Beer (“beer”), Dutch bier (“beer”), German Bier (“beer”), Icelandic bjór (“beer”), Swedish buska (“freshly brewed beer, new beer”), Middle Dutch & Middle Low German būsen (“to feast, booze, drink heavily”), Middle High German būs (“a swelling”). Non-Germanic cognates include probably Albanian mbush (“to fill, stuff”). More at booze.

From Wiktionary
Middle English ber from Old English bēor from West Germanic probably from Latin bibere to drink pō(i)- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Middle English ber from Old English bēor from West Germanic probably from Latin bibere to drink pō(i)- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Middle English beere, equivalent to be +‎ -er.

From Wiktionary