branch water

noun

1. water in or from a branch, creek, stream, etc.; pure, natural water.
2. Also called branch. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. (in a drink, highball, etc.) plain water as distinguished from soda water, ginger ale, or the like; ordinary water.

Word History and Origins

Origin of branch water¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

The adult finds a Kentucky bourbon with value, neat or with branch water.

From New York Times

Take the mixers: Brown says that he's having limestone-rich branch water shipped in from Kentucky, and Speyside mineral water shipped from Scotland.

From Washington Post

Boyd, another native Kentuckian, is drinking it neat here, rather than with a splash of branch water.

From Washington Post

You weren’t supposed to drink it—people said you could get chills and fevers, by which they meant malaria, from drinking branch water—but it looked clean enough to drink.

From The New Yorker

Before these three rode away, I said, aside to Jim, who was one of them, 'Don't bother about any whiskey; branch water is plenty nourishing for the wounded.

From Project Gutenberg