Word of the Day for Monday, December 31, 2012

compotation \kom-puh-TEY-shuhn\,
noun:
An act or instance of drinking or tippling together.

I may here mention, that the fashion of compotation described in the text, was still occasionally practiced in Scotland, in the author's youth. A company, after having taken leave of their host, often went to finish the evening at the clachan or village, in "womb of tavern." The entertainer always accompanied them to take the stirrup-cup, which often occasioned a long and late revel.
-- Sir Walter Scott, "The Waverley Novels"

Wouldn't you be too old to bring me my whey in the morning soon as I'd awake, perhaps with a severe headache, after the plenary indulgence of a clerical compotation.
-- William Carleton, Denis O'Shaughnessy "Going To Maynooth"

This lively term is derived from a Latin translation compōtātiō of the Greek word symposium or "a convivial meeting for drinking and intellectual conversation."

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