Les Jones: Word of the Day: Growler

January 23, 2006

Word of the Day > Word of the Day: Growler

From Malted Barley via Chris Wage, who's been enjoying growlers from a Nashville microbrewery.

Brander Matthews wrote about it in Harper’s Magazine in July 1893: “In New York a can brought in filled with beer at a bar-room is called a growler, and the act of sending this can from the private house to the public-house and back is called working the growler”.
It was also called rushing the growler, since perhaps these children were often in a hurry. Teenagers could make good money and get a free lunch if they would show up at the factories and pick up the workers’ beer pails to get them filled at the taverns. They would sometime use a long pole in order to carry a quantity of pails to refill on one trip. Another possible explanation for using the term ‘rushing’ the growler.

Previous WOTD: Muffintop

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Comments

In NYC it is illegal to posses an open container of alcohol. However, there is a virtually unknown exception for exactly what you've referred to as a "growler". In the "old days", people (usually kids) were in fact sent to the bar to fill a pale of beer. I assume this was when kegs were the norm and bottled (let alone canned) beer was rare or unavailable in small containers. The practice probably hasn't been seen in decades, but the legal exception still exists.

Perp

Posted by: perpster at January 22, 2006

This is, of course, distinct from the "Growling Splashmonkey", which can be summoned by indulging in too many growlers. ;)

Posted by: Tam at January 23, 2006