Why do we associate the words “drink” and “drinking” with alcohol, even though we also drink non-alcoholic beverages?
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In a nutshell: We rarely talk about drinking, so the word had space left for that meaning.
It is quite common for words to take on both a generic and a specific meaning if the generic one is rarely used. Just look at the word “animal”, and how half the time it is used, we’re actually talking about “mammals without humans”.
With “drinking”, we don’t talk about drinking water/juice/tea/coffee/etc. that often. We more often simply do it without saying anything, or we heavily stress the beverage. “You should drink more water!” or “Do you want tea or juice for breakfast?” for example.
This opens up “drink” for this additional meaning where the exact type of liquid (beer, wine, spirits, …) is of no concern; “Do you want to go out for a drink?”. Which works fine, with only very rare occasions that need to be cleared up by context; “What do you want to drink?” has a different meaning at a tea house than a pub. And very nicely, that question still leaves non-alcoholic beverages open as an answer.
As adults, most people really either drink alcohol or tea / coffee / other specific soft drinks. For cultural reasons, people just say drinking to mean drinking alcohol and would name the soft drinks otherwise. It’s just cultural.
It’s the only kind of drinking that’s an event, it’s an activity on it’s own.
People don’t go out to the pub together to drink Ribena.
It’s a cultural and a historical thing.
Just like when someone says that they are going to smoke, you are probably not waiting with a plate hoping for a brisket.
I would just add that societies as a whole use to drink alcohol a lot more than we do now. like, much of western society was just functioning alcoholics, especially the US in the 19th century
We don’t, you might.
If someone says “would you like a drink?” I’m not going to assume that means alcohol. Being British its probably tea, but id assume I was being offered water or maybe soda etc.
But context matters, if they’re stood in front of me holding a bottle of whisky and ask that question then I’d assume they meant whisky, or if we’re in a bar and everyone is holding a beer and they ask that question… you get the idea.
And there’s the way it’s said, such as; “he likes to drink a bit too much, if you know what I mean.” The tone that’s said can often just imply the “if you know what i mean”, especially as the context is drinking in excess, which isn’t really applied to water.
The word “imbibe” never really caught on, but that’s a word that means “to drink alcohol”. I couldn’t tell you the reason why though, but as we consume alcohol by drinking it, “drink” is not an inaccurate term.
It must have been one of the first activities to be named. Like the Fly. It was probably the first flying insect named. Lots of insects can fly.
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