Origin Story
There is a charming story behind how "toast" came to mean both grilled bread and a salute with a raised glass. Originally toast came from the Latin tostare ("to roast"), meaning "to brown over a fire." In old Europe, people would drop a piece of spiced, grilled bread into their wine to add flavor — it also helped tame the taste of wine that had turned sour. By the 17th century, when a company raised their glasses to the health of some celebrated lady, they likened her to that prized morsel floating in the cup and called her the "toast" of the gathering. From there, the very act of raising a glass in someone's honor came to be called a toast.
Today, to say someone is "the toast of the town" is high praise — it means they are the most celebrated person around. The image of that prized piece of bread floating in the glass, admired by all, still lingers in the phrase.
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Online Etymology Dictionarytoast (v.): "to brown with heat," late 14c., from Old French toster, from Vulgar Latin tostare, from Latin torrere "to parch"; the "drink to someone's health" sense is 1700, from notion of a lady whose name flavored a drink like spiced toast in wine
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Merriam-Webster Dictionarytoast: from the use of pieces of spiced toast to flavor wine, then drinking to a person likened to such a toast
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Oxford English Dictionarytoast: from Old French toster "to roast or grill," from Latin torrere "to scorch"; the convivial sense from the custom of flavoring wine with spiced toast
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Picture a browned piece of bread floating in a glass of wine — that little crust is where the "toast" began.
""A small crust floated in a glass was the beginning of every toast.""
