‘Make that two Toddies!’

Abstract

The author examines the use of the same term, toddy, to refer to two different combinations for palm-wine and whisky-&-water, concluding that the two toddies cannot have failed to influence each other to some extent and there may have been some overlapping in the social milieus where each was traditionally served. This raises the question of how to deal with words that may have had distinct origins but have subsequently fallen together in form and thus in the public mind and mouth: one dictionary entry or two? At a minimum it seems that separate etymologies should be provided – where known.