Everything about Byob totally explained
BYOB is an acronym for Bring Your Own Beer. Commonly used to also mean Bring your own Beef at a
Barbecue. In certain regions, including Calgary, Alberta, Canada it's known during the days of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede to mean Bring Your Own Both (Both being Beer and Beef - the Stampede is a 10 day rodeo). Also Bring Your Own Bud, is common. Street slang in Calgary during Stampede has also adapted this to mean "Bring Your Own Breasts"(for the famous Cowboys Nightclub infamous for paying for its waitresses' breast implants). BYOB is considered by some to be a primarily American
acronym for
bring your own bottle, although the phrase is often construed to mean
bring your own booze,
bring your own beverage or
bring your own beer. The acronym is placed on an invitation to indicate that the host won't be providing alcohol and guests are welcome to bring their own. It is also frequently used by regular bars, restaurants, or strip clubs which don't have a
license to serve liquors or alcoholic beverages in general; an alternate term for this is
brownbagging.
First cited by some online sources to have been used in the 1950s, but in later years the latter "B" has taken on various meanings,
beer and
beverage.
An alternative etymology is emerging however, and is rumoured to be due for consideration by
BBC television's popular series
Balderdash & Piffle which challenges viewers to push back the official known dates of reference for various unusual words, for consideration by the
Oxford English Dictionary. This alternative suggests that in the early 19th century the term BYOB was used in
society slang to mean "Bring Your Own Basket", with reference to group picnics. A basket would of course include alcoholic beverages but this isn't believed to have been the primary focus of the term. This version is also supported by the
Modern Drunkard Magazine.
It is however generally recognised the more modern subversion of the term was initiated by drinkers in the 1950s, but it's still contested as to on which side of the Atlantic it first occurred.
In Australia, the colloquialism is often changed slightly to the acronym
BYOG meaning
bring your own grog. This is frequently used to describe a party where guests are expected to bring their own alcoholic beverages.
In addition to the "Basket" etymology, several other meanings have been put forward but as they're neither widely used nor recognised, they're only understood when expanded, for example
bring your own bagels, bring your own bhang or
bring your own Bat'leth (said by
Tom Paris to
B'Elanna Torres in a season three episode of ) or "build your own box" in
hacker jargon. Overall it's a very popular acronym that's often used to mean (slightly) different things by intent.
In
Hong Kong, BYOB is abbreviated as Bring Your Own Bag, an environmental
public service announcement campaign in the 1990s to encourage people to keep the use
plastic shopping bags to a minimum.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Byob'.
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