Where did it come from ?

[secsee1]

Can anybody please tell me what was the Origin behind the word ''Bevie'' as in going for a Bevie or
going for a drink (alcoholic).

[beejay1124]

beverage ?

[Sandy-Wroe]

Beverage?

[beejay1124]

cheers Sandy

[secsee1]

That's exactly what I had guessed until somebody pointed out that beverage
normally refers to tea or coffee and not to alcohol and the saying is definitely
used in ''going for a pint'' in the pub.

[Sandy-Wroe]

Maybe the drinkers were being ironic?

[bibblebub]

A beverage is any drink other than water and so includes alcoholic drinks (although they are usually referred to as alcoholic beverages not just beverages on its own).

[sprayer]

?

[sprayer]

Sorry about the last posting, clicked on the wrong key,

I am told that many years ago there was a brewery called Beverlys so pubs
(up north I believe) used to sell ''Beverlys'' ales this then got shortened hence
the saying ''Going for a Bevie'' how true this is I couldn't say, it is just what I heard
as an answer to a pub quiz question

[bibblebub]

Another possibility is that it's from the old French word bevee which means drink.

[Quizmonster]

The Oxford English Dictionary lists bevvy as (quote) "a drink, especially beer". It is definitely an abbreviation of beverage rather than Beverlys. Whilst beverage clearly CAN mean other liquids, it is almost invariably nowadays a reference to alcohol. No one has ever used the adjective, bevvied, to refer to someone who has had a surfeit of tea!

[secsee1]

Thank for your most interesting answers, especially Sprayer & Quizmonster, I will have to look in to this deeper, though I must say I have never heard of ''Beverlys Ales''
perhaps somebody up north has ?

[Quizmonster]

There WAS a Beverley Brothers' brewery in Wakefield from the 1860s. However, The Oxford English Dictionary - the 'bible' of English word origins and history - says nothing whatever about it in its etymology of the word bevvy. It does though, as already outlined, say, "from bev(erage plus y.)"
I suspect that Sprayer's pub quiz happened in Yorkshire or had a Yorkshireman as a quizmaster!
Sorry, mate!