Booze

‘Booze’, which is slang for alcoholic liquor or to drink heavily is first cited in Middle English during the 14th century, but the spelling was ‘bouse’ or ‘bowse’, but was generally pronounced ‘booze’. It appears as ‘bowse’ in Thomas Harman’s glossary of ‘cant’ words and expressions in 1566. Back then, there was no such word as ‘slang’ so words like ‘bowse’ were classified as ‘cant’, which was the vocabulary of thieves, vagabonds and rogues. See also Slang.