I love Gary, but there are plenty of much earlier references. He probably brought the word back, and I do think it's a good one, but there's a reference to the "Young England discovery of the pure Cocktailian race" in a book called "Nuts and Nutcrackers, by C.J. Lever. You could look it up.

Who gives a fuc*?

As noted in WordSpy, there's also this earlier reference to the term:

Though the tour of the mansion is worth an admission price, the charge probably dissuaded fleets of cocktailians from stepping out onto their strobe-lit dance floor. Diana Aitchison, "On the town," The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), May 21, 1993.

And Rob Lozan, an artist, does paintings of a 3-eyed alien character drinking a cocktail. He dubs the guy The Cocktailian, and this, too, predates my 2001 "coining" of the term.

There's nothing new under the face of the sun, as they say, though I do think that it's possible that my 2001 DrinkBoy posting might have given birth to its present meaning, at least within the bartending community.

I posted the 2001 drinkboy thing onto our site after someone aske me to define the term. Here's what I came up with:

Cocktailian: A bartender, or an amateur mixologist, who has a deep knowledge of ingredients commonly used in cocktails, and the ability to bring them together in harmony.

Then, after consulting with Robert Hess, a cocktailian if there ever was one, he added a second definition:

Cocktailian: A person with a deep appreciation for well-constructed cocktails and mixed drinks.

And for the record, I'd rather be a good bartender--someone who really cares about his or her customers in a truly personal sense--than a great cocktailian any day of the week.

Cheers, gaz regan

@JR: Thanks for this!

@smackyou: Um, cocktail nerds. Duh.

@ gary regan: Yes, it's true. There is nothing new under the sun! But I'm glad you posted the correspondence anyway. There are so many great literary references to cocktails that it only makes sense for cocktail people to seriously discuss words, no?

Yes, it's fun to discuss this stuff. I should probabky add that when I "coined' the word (even though it had been "coined" before, I had never consciously seen or heard it), it was meant to be a word to replace "mixologist," and in that context, it didn't work at all.

Cocktailian found its own meaning by being used by the bartending community, and then picked up by the public at large.