What is origin of the term “dry” to mean lack of a sweet taste?
I am aware that “London Dry” is a style of unsweetened gin and that this has influenced how we talk about other drinks. I am interested in why the word dry was initially used in this context to describe the taste.
The dictionary definition I have found is:
If wine or other alcoholic drinks are dry, they do not taste sweet:
dry cider/martini/sherry/wine
On the whole, I like dry wine better than sweet.
EDIT: I now know that the origin most likely comes from wine, not gin.
A search of the Early English Books Online database of books from 1450 to 1700 yields one instance of the phrase "dry wine" from a book published before 1700. From In Vino Veritas: or, A Conference Betwixt Chip the Cooper, and Dash the Drawer (Being Both Boozy) Discovering Some Secrets in the Wine-Brewing Trade (1698)—one year earlier than the oldest instance cited by the OED (as reported in Greybeard's answer):
Dash. The Palats of our Customers have more different gusts than the Moon has Figures; one must (as he calls it) have a dry Wine, another a rough Wine; t'other a smooth mellow Wine, but most agree in a very strong Wine; which we know how to strengthen, with Brandy, or Spirits, which are cheaper, and to lengthen it; for the Fame of one extraordinary high priz'd Pipe of Canary (we buy) sells us twenty, and yet we perswade, 'tis all of that very Pipe; and so of Pontac (when in vogue) and of other Wines, (now) as Barcelona, Gallicia, Lisbon, &c.
As for the rationale for using dry in this way, Nathan Bailey, An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, third edition (1726) offers this brief rationale in an entry devoted to dry in the wine sense:
DRY (spoken of Wine) a Wine that by reason of Age, is pretty well dephlegmated, or has lost much of its waterish Quality.
Elsewhere in this dictionary, Bailey identifies dephlegmated as a "Chymical Term" meaning "cleared from Phlegm or Water" and dephlegmation as "a Separation of Phlegm or superfluous Water." The second edition of Bailey's dictionary (1724), however, lacks the wine-related entry for dry.
It would seem from Bailey's discussion that people in the early 1700s applied the term dry to wine that, because it was older, contained less "superfluous" water. Interestingly, neither Bailey in 1726 nor the author of In Vino Veritas in 1698 makes any explicit connection between dry and the meaning "free from sweetness or fruity flavor" ascribed to it by Etymology Online (and noted in user 66974's answer) as dating to 1700.
Update (December 30, 2021): A further look into early uses of 'dry' and its possible seventeenth-century antecedents
Another wine term that appears in Bailey's third edition is racy:
RACY {spoken of wine} that has by age lost its luscious quality.
But the fourteenth edition of Bailey's Universal Etymological Dictionary (1751), although it retains the same definition of dry (in the wine sense) as the third edition, has a very different definition of racy:
RACY {spoken of Wine} a Wine that still retains its rich Flavour ; this Word is used in Distinction to what is called a dry Wine.
So Bailey in 1751 seems to be contrasting dry with flavorful, not with sweet.
Thomas Dyche & William Pardon, A New General English Dictionary (1735) offers this entry for dry as an adjective:
DRY (A.) That has none, or very little Moisture ; also a Cant Word for one that acts slily or cunningly, that is very reserved, and watches all Opportunities to say or do something for his own Advantage ; also when Wine by reason of Age is much dephlegmated, and its watry Taste considerably abated, or quite destroyed, it is said to be dry.
Although the focus of the relevant definition here is on dephlegmation (as in the third edition of Bailey's dictionary), the entry does connect dryness to an abatement in the wine's taste—albeit its "watry Taste"—not to an abatement in sweetness.
Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, second edition (1738), mentions dryness as a quality of wine twice in a lengthy discussion of the topic:
WINE, Vinum, a brisk, agreeable, spirituous, and cordial liquor, drawn from vegetable bodies, and fermented. See VEGETABLE, and FERMENTATION.
...
The goodness of wine consists in its being neat, dry, fine, bright, and brisk, without any taste of the soil, of a clean, steddy colour ; having a strength, without being heady ; a body, without being sour ; and keeping, without growing hard, or eager.
...
Wines, again, are distinguished, with regard to their quality, into sweet wines, rough or dry wines, and rich or luscious wines, vins de liquor ; of which last, some are exceedingly sweet, others sweet and poignant ; all chiefly used by way of dram after meals, &c.
Significantly, Chambers lists "sweet wine" and "rough or dry wine" as two of the primary categories of wine when distinguished as to "quality." However, this split does not necessarily correspond to a simple division between "sugary"and "non-sugary." Complicating the sense of the terminology is this further comment in the same entry:
Wine, in France, is distinguished, from the several degrees and steps of its preparation, into,
...
Sweet WINE, vin doux, is that which has not yet worked, or fermented.
So, to the extent that French nomenclature crossed into English usage, "sweet wine" might refer to wine not yet fermented—that is, very young wine indeed. This sense of the term is obviously distinct from the notion of "sweet wine" as wine that has a sugary taste, although the latter meaning is evidently intended by Chambers in the discussion of "rich or luscious wines" and may well be the primary sense of "sweet wines" as he uses that term.
Instances of "sweet wine" in the more intuitive sense of "wine that tastes sweet" goes back much farther than instances of "dry wine" in any sense. For example, from Thomas Coane, The Haven of Health (1612):
And if any be disposed to drinke Wine, they may learne to choose good Wine by fiue properties : First by the colour, as white, red, claret. Secondly by the taste, as sweet, soure, rough, light. Thirdly by the sauour or smell, as fragrant or otherwise. Fourthly, by the substance, as thick, thinne, cleare or muddy. Fiftly by the age, as new or old.
The absence of dry from this list of taste characteristics strongly suggests that it was a relatively late addition to the English wine lexicon—certainly later than rough (which appears in Coane's 1610 discussion and is paired with dry in Chambers's 1738 coverage, although set in opposition to it in In Vino Veritas's 1698 description).
Older still is a 1600 translation of Charles Stevens & John Liebault, Maison Rustique, or The Covnntrie Farme (1600), which uses the terms rough and sharpe in connection with wine:
The naturall and reclaimed plant of the blacke vine groweth euerie where : the wilde doth yeeld a sharpe and rough wine : such as that which groweth of ground newly broken vp : but the vine that is intended to be for claret wine, is planted halfe of black and halfe of a white vine, and thereupon standeth in neede of another manner of dressing and seate, then the common vine doth : in like sort it is harder to order well, as requiring a very great care to be taken about it, because the wine which commeth thereof, is most pleasant to the eie and of excellent taste, albeit it that it doe not nourish so much.
Other possible predecessor terms—besides rough and sharp—for dry as a descriptive term for wine are austere and harsh. Thus, John Gerard, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, second edition (1636) offers this note in his discussion of "the manured vine":
There be others [that is, other grape vines] which make a black and obscure red wine, whereof some bring bigger clusters, and consist of greater grapes, others of lesser ; some grow more clustered or closer together, others looser ; some haue but one stone, others more ; some make a more austere or harsh wine, others a more sweet ;: of some the old wine is best, of diuers the first yeres wine is most excellent ; some bring forth fruit foure square, of which kindes we haue great plenty.
A 1686 translation of Castor DaGualdo, A Treasure of Health (1686) uses dry several times in connection with wine characteristics:
Of Old Wine
When the Wine is above four years old, it is hot and dry in the third degree, and the older it is, the more heat it acquires. The best is such as is odoriferous, something strong, full of Spirits, which is neither bitter nor sowr, but pleasant to all the Senses, helping the expulsive Faculty, dissolving ill Humours ; ... 'tis naught for Copulation, because it dryes up the Seed, disturbs the Understanding, offends the little skins of the Brain, and hinders Sleep ; whence 'tis to be used for Physick, and not for Drink, unless you use it very moderately, and mixt with much Water : 'Tis naught for young and cholerick persons, but good for old men, especially in Winter.
Of Rough Wine
The Wines which are properly Rough, have so small a heat, that they scarce arrive to the first degree, and are dry in the second: They are good for the great Heat in quotidian Fevers, Inflammations of the Liver, and dryness of the Stomach; they refresh, take away Thirst, cure Fluxes, stop Vomiting, but let them not be too sharp or sowr, but moderately binding, subtil, and not of too high a colour ; they are good for young men of an hot Stomach, and are naught for flegmatick and old men, because they bind the Breast, beget Coughs, do neither nourish well, nor breed good Blood, and hinder Sweat.
...
Of White Wine
The Wine of a Citron, or Limmon-colour, is called White-wine : It is odoriferous and strong, is hot in the beginning of the second degree, and, dry in the first ; it must not be kept longer than a year, for it will be too hot ; ...
In all of these descriptions, the author (or translator) seems to use dry in connection with the effects of the particular type of wine on the person who consumes it. That is, because old wine, rough wine, and white wine all have the effect of drying out the drinker's insides, they are aptly characterized as dry in the third, second, or first degree.
Conclusions
Although dry appears as an adjective modifying wine in the direct form "dry wine" by 1698 and as a more distant modifier of the form "[Wine] is dry in the third degree" by 1686, it is not at all clear that the use of dry in these instances was intended to emphasize a split between dryness and sweetness, rather than between dryness and wateriness or between dryness and flavorfulness.
It seems not at all unlikely that the association of dryness with non-sweetness emerged some time after dry (in its wine sense) first caught on in English. The change involved would in any case be far less dramatic than the shift undergone by racy from 1726 ("[wine] that has by age lost its luscious quality") to 1751 ("a Wine that still retains its rich Flavour").
The OED claims the earliest record of "dry" as an adjective for "wine" in English is in 1699:
- Of wines, etc.: Free from sweetness and fruity flavour.
1699 B. E. A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew
Dry-wine, a little rough upon, but very grateful to the Palate.
However, I cannot find the phrase in the online versions of the dictionary.
It is interesting to note that "dry" and the German "trocken" (adj + v.) have the same etymology and the German also uses "trocken" in the same meaning for wine. So it is probably much earlier in origin.
I cannot show it, but this use probably dates back to a now obsolete meaning:
(Also OED)
†15.a. Yielding no fruit, result, or satisfaction; barren, sterile, unfruitful, jejune. (Cf. A. 4) Obsolete (or merged in sense A. 17).
a1340 R. Rolle Psalter vi. 6 I sall make it to bere froit, þat bifore was drye fra goed werkes.
1661 J. Glanvill Vanity of Dogmatizing xviii. 171 That the fire burns by heat, is an empty dry return to the question, and leaves us still ignorant.
Moving on and ignoring what the current feeling about sweet and dry wines may be as opposed to what past feeling was, we have:
16. Lacking adornment or embellishment, or some addition; meagre, plain, bare; matter-of-fact.
1626 W. Laud Wks. (1849) II. 370 And if they say..they believe them in the Church's sense; yet that dry shift will not serve.
and
17. Deficient in interest; unattractive, distasteful, insipid. (figurative from food that wants succulency.) 1632 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 4) i. ii. i. ii. 39 Our subtile Schoolemen..are weake, drye, obscure.
It would seem that the figurative use of "dry" is the origin and it is quite old in its association with wine.
The sense of dry meaning lacking sweetness referring to alcoholic drinks is a few centuries old but its origin is unknown:
Dry:
Of wines, brandy, etc., "free from sweetness or fruity flavor," 1700.
Is may plausibly derive from the sensation you get drinking a dry drink:
From google.answers
"Astringency actually is a tactile sensation as opposed to a taste or smell. The best way to describe astringency is a dry, puckery sensation on the surfaces of the tongue and lining of the mouth.
I've found dry used to describe the taste of some plums earlier than its first documented use with wine. My opinion is that siccum, sec, secco, sack, and (later) their English translation/equivalent dry were used to describe something similar to the taste characteristic of unripe fruit (e.g., grapes and plums) and some wine, i.e., tart or unsweet.
The red Primordian Plumme is of a reasonable size, long and round, reddish on the outside, of a more dry taste, and ripe with the first sorts in the beginning of August. John Parkinson; Paridisi In Sole Paradisus Terristrie: A Garden of All Sorts of Pleasant Flowers which..., p.575 (1629)
It is from this period that the first use of the word 'dry' to describe a wine that was not sweet appeared, in the doggerel of one Richard Ames who published an account of his travels in 1691 round London's taverns in search of 'a bottle of good old dry orthodox claret'; he was unable to find it, since all that he was offered was port or madeira. Andrew Barr; Drink (1995)
...
So not knowing what Murder and Blood might ensue,
In hast paid for our Drink, and so timely withdrew
Resolving the dull tedious search to give o're,
And never inquire for Old Dry Claret more.Richard Ames; "The Last Search After Claret, &C.", allpoetry.com (1691)
Ames uses the same phrase in stanza XV of his "A Farther Search After Claret..." from the same year:
To the Ship then we steer'd with a steddy brisk Gale,
Where of good Old dry Claret we thought not to fail;
Sack (wine), vin d'Espagne, vin sec.—Sherwood, 1650. Bishop Percy cites from an old account-book of the city of Worcester, Anno Eliz. 34. Item for a gallon of claret wine, and seck, and a pound of sugar." The name was properly given to the dry Spanish wine such as that still imported under the name of sherry. "Sherry sack, so called from Xeres, a sea town of Corduba in Spain, where that kind of sack is made."—Blount, Glossographia in Nares. Shakespeare uses sherris and sack as synonyms.
This valour comes of sherris, so that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack.—H. IV
Minsheu (1625) explains sacke, a wine that cometh out of Spaine, Belgicé Roomenije ..., wijn seck, quasi siccum, proper magnam siccandi humores facultatem, giving the right derivation of the word though he did not understand the meaning of term dry applied to wine. When the proper meaning of the name was so early lost in England, it is not surprising that it should have been applied to other strong white wines coming from the same quarter, whether sweet or dry, and we hear of Canary and Malaga sacks. Venner ... after discussing medicinally the propriety of mixing sugar with sack, adds: "But what I have spoken of mixing sugar with sack must be understood of Sherie sack, for to mix sugar with other wines, that in a common appellation are called sack, and are sweet in taste, makes it unpleasant to the pallat and fulsome to the stomach." "Canarie wine, which beareth the name of the islands from whence it is brought, is of some termed a sacke with this adjunct, sweet." ... Hensleigh Wedgwood; Dictionary of English Etymology vol. 3, p.107 (1865)
See also Henderson; The History of Ancient and Modern Wines (1824) for a similar account, as well as a contrasting opinion that sack derives from the skin bags in which the Spaniards preserved their wine.
Regarding a comment by Stuart F about the use of sec in French about 1200, the late date agrees with information about the Italian secco:
secco [lat. siccu(m) 'secco' di orig. indeur. 1266] (Zanichelli; lo Zingarelli Italian Dictionary)