zoedone

English

Alternative forms

• Zoedone

Noun

zoedone (uncountable)

1. A non-alcoholic beverage, apparently carbonated, manufactured for a time in the 1880s as part of the temperance movement.
   • 1881 February, “Temperance Notes”, in Methodist Temperance Magazine, page 95:

     It was proved that the liquid of which the officers had partaken was Zoedone, and not champagne. Well, after all, many other folks besides these detectives have paid their five shillings a bottle for much worse stuff than Zoedone, and have plumed themselves on the excellent quality of their champagne, without being any nearer a true knowledge of what they were drinking.

   • 1886, Annie Robina Butler, Glimpses of Maori Land, page 6:

     The feminine element on board meantime gratefully appreciated our creature comforts—such as preserved ginger, gingerbread, hot-water bottle, jam, biscuits, and zoedone.

   • 1888, “William Powell Frith, R.A.”, in The Living Age, volume LXI (fifth series), page 296:

     There was no zoedone or temperance sherry in those days, else we should have thought he might have been imbibing those enlivening drinks. […] It really was just as like thirty-four port as zoedone is like a beaker of champagne, dry, but not too dry.