In 1923, a national contest kicked off in Boston to find a new word.  The definition was in place, and a $200 prize was announced once someone invented a word that would embody this definition.  The definition: “a person who drinks illegally”.  At the time, this meant pretty much everyone in the United States (and much of Canada), since Prohibition had been in place since 1919.  The contest and its prize was sponsored by Delcevare King, a banker and an enthusiastic supporter of Prohibition. The contest was announced in newspapers across the country, but it was the Boston Globe that found the winners.  There were two winners, in fact: Globe readers Henry Irving Dale and Kate L. Butler, who independently hit upon scofflaw to inhabit this definition.  Since both came up with it, Mr. King decided it was fair that they split the prize money, giving $100 to each of them.  Theirs were only two of about 25,000 entries received. The term caught on, and enjoyed popular currency for as long

Proof?  Proof of what? In America, the potency of alcohol is measured in degrees of proof.  Proof measures the amount of alcohol within spirits, a measure that runs from 0 to 200.  0 proof would be absolutely free of alcohol; 100 proof would be half alcohol; 200 proof would be pure alcohol.  But why 200? This dates back to 16 th century England, when spirits were taxed differently according to the amount of alcohol in them.  Tax collectors would perform a test to determine how much alcohol was in particular spirits.  To conduct the test, a pellet of gunpowder would be soaked in the spirit, then removed to see if it would still burn.  If the pellet burned after being soaked in rum, it was said to be “100 degrees proof”, and higher taxes were levied on it. The proof test was applied to other spirits, but rum was the one that was used to set the standard.  At this time, there was no such thing as “200 proof”.  The English scale in the 16 th century went up to 175.