Toast

Toast (Late Lat. tosta, 'a piece of toast,' from tostus, 'scorched' or 'parched') is the name given to bread dried and browned before the fire. So early as the 16th century toasted bread formed a favourite addition to English drinks. Sack was drunk with toast, and so was punch. The practice of drinking healths, particularly that of an entertainer, is one so natural, so likely to spring up spontaneously, that it is impossible to say when it began. Certain it is, however, that it received an artificial development owing to the prevalence of convivial habits in the 17th century. Then it became the fashion to drink not to the health of entertainers only, but to that of each guest, of absent friends, and more especially of the unmarried woman whose attractions were most generally acknowledged. It also became the custom to describe a woman whose health was so drunk as herself 'a toast'—a custom whimsically referred to one particular incident in the Tatler, No. 24 (1709). Whatever may be the origin of the use of the word 'toast' in this sense, we now apply it not only to any person, but to any sentiment mentioned with honour before drinking. Both French and Germans have adopted the word from us. See Chambers's Book of Days; Valpy's History of Toasting (1881); and six long lists of toasts and sentiments in Notes and Queries (1888).