root beer

• rootbeer

First recorded in 1841. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

IPA^(key): /ˈɹut ˌbɪɹ/

root beer (countable and uncountable, plural root beers)

1. A beverage, most often a carbonated soft drink made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses, among other things.

   Coordinate term: root tea

   • 2002, Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes, Penguin, →ISBN:

     In 1919, when Roy Allen and Frank Wright started selling their new root beer beverage to a thirsty America, national Prohibition was taking its grip on the country. Their timing couldn't have been better. No longer able to legally drink real beer, thirsty patriots had to settle for this sweet, foamy conoction derived from roots, herbs, and berries.

2. (color) A dark reddish-brown color, like the drink.

   root beer:  

   • 2000, Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, page 26:

     I just keep staring at all the ink we have, that wild variety of color, everything from rootbeer, midnight blue and cochineal to mauve, light doe, lilac, south sea green, maize, even pelican black, all line up in these plastic caps […]

   • 2006, Tim Lewis, Bows, Swamps, Whitetails, page 28:

     […] most of our bucks have antlers that are varying degrees of brown, from a deep rich root beer shade to walnut to even light amber.

• root beer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• rebooter, roboteer

Unadapted borrowing from English root beer.

root beer f (plural root beers)

1. root beer (beverage made with sarsaparilla root)

   Synonyms: cerveja de raiz, cerveja de raízes