toast [LME] There is a connection between the toast you eat and the toast you make with a raised glass. Toast is based on Latin torrere ‘to parch, scorch, dry up’, the source also of torrid [E17th], and torrent [LME] a rushing or ‘boiling’ flow of water. ‘To parch’ was the earliest meaning of the English word, and before long it was used to describe browning bread in front of a fire. Toast was often added to wine or ale, a practice so common that ‘old toast’ [M17th] could be used as a term for one who drank to excess. Drinking toasts goes back to the late 17th century, and originated in the practice whereby a drinker would name a lady and request that all the people present drink her health. The idea was that the lady’s name flavoured the drink like the pieces of spiced toast.