# Origin of Ginger **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 2, 2001, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ginger/64087 "2001-05-02T15:05:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ginger/64087/21 "2013-10-15T18:09:35Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Break - breach > Drink - drench > Seek - search > Snag - snatch? 🙂 I don’t think you drink a drench. Drench is a _verb_ meaning “to soak thoroughly”. Although there’s apparently an alternate definition for a dose of medicine forcibly administered to an animal. Hmmm, apparently on word origin from Old English it meant “to force to drink”, still a verb, with related form _drenc_ for a drink. So maybe you’re almost right. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ginger/64087/22 "2013-10-15T18:14:42Z")
No, you don’t “drink a drench” in modern English. But it seems pretty clear that both words had the same root somewhere, meaning _water_ or _wet_. “Drink” is still used as a euphemism for a body of water. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ginger/64087/23 "2013-10-15T19:15:24Z")
Yes, the words are related—indeed, they were dialect forms of a single word until relatively recently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ginger/64087.md?page=1)