# Why soft drink?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 16, 2003, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946 "2003-01-16T08:42:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@King\_Friday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Friday)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/1 "2003-01-16T08:42:17Z")
How did soda pop come to be called a soft drink? Does it have something to do with being the opposite of hard liquor?
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### Author:  [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/2 "2003-01-16T08:49:54Z")
soft drink
n. In both senses also called soda pop, also called regionally cold drink, drink, pop1, soda, soda water, tonic.
A nonalcoholic, flavored, carbonated beverage, usually commercially prepared and sold in bottles or cans.
A serving of this beverage. See Regional Note at tonic.
So… yes?
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/3 "2003-01-16T08:55:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by King Friday \*
> \*\*How did soda pop come to be called a soft drink? Does it have something to do with being the opposite of hard liquor? \*\*
so why hard liquor
hard to get, stomach, or pay for?
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### Author:  [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/4 "2003-01-16T09:06:01Z")
Because it hits you like a brick if you can’t handle it? _shrugs_ I’m sure there is a resident liquor expert who can explain the difference.
hard liquor
n : distilled rather than fermented
Distilling is (to be vague) the purification of the solution, so in a sense, it is the “hard” version of beer or wine. Keep in mind that early soft drinks weren’t anything like soft drinks are now (which is generally shown by what Coca-Cola was turning into what it is now).
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### Author:  [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/5 "2003-01-16T09:13:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Zagadka \*
> \*\*
> hard liquor
> n : distilled rather than fermented
> Distilling is (to be vague) the purification of the solution, so in a sense, it is the “hard” version of beer or wine. Keep in mind that early soft drinks weren’t anything like soft drinks are now (which is generally shown by what Coca-Cola was turning into what it is now). \*\*
+1
thanks
🙂
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### Author:  [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/6 "2003-01-16T10:32:26Z")
Does soft drink only apply to carbonated beverages, then? What about fruit juices? Are they a category on their own?
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### Author:  [@Mith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mith)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/7 "2003-01-16T10:44:36Z")
when someone says… wanna drink?
it can sound like you are offering liquor.
so mix without hard liquor is a soft drink.
juice is juice… to differentiate it from say…fruit flavored syrup used flavoring.
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### Author:  [@HighSoci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HighSoci)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/8 "2003-01-16T13:24:47Z")
Here in Texas we call them cokes. That is how we know the difference. Someone asks me if I want a coke, then I say “sure grab me a Dew.” If you want a Coca Cola, then you would just say, “just get me a reg. coke.”
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/9 "2003-01-16T14:46:06Z")
Y’all are trying to hard.
One definition of “hard” is “fermented, alcoholic,” as in “hard cider.”
One definition of “soft” is “nonalcoholic.”
“Drink” in one sense encompasses both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, and in another is understood to mean only alcoholic ones. The word “drink” by itself doesn’t have a meaning of “only nonalcoholic beverage,” so the term “soft drink” fills that role.
While tea, coffee, juice, water, etc. can properly be called soft drinks, most people are in the habit of asking for them by their specific names, leaving “soft drink” to cover pop, Kool-Aid, etc.
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### Author:  [@Ashkicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashkicker)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soft-drink/148946/10 "2003-01-16T16:27:35Z")
I still cringe when I hear my father-inlaw ask for a “Dope” from the fridge.