BYOB

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BYOB is an initialism most commonly meant to stand for "bring your own bottle". BYOB may also be defined as "bring your own beer" or "bring your own booze". The term "booze" is slang for alcoholic drinks. Possibly for a more generic situation, it could be "bring your own beverage." It is also commonly used to mean "bring your own beef" at a barbecue.

BYOB is often placed on an invitation to indicate that the host will not be providing alcohol and that guests are welcome to bring their own. It is also frequently used by regular bars, restaurants, or strip clubs which do not have licenses to serve liquor or alcoholic beverages in general; an alternate term for this is brownbagging.

Several other meanings have been used, but as they are neither widely used nor recognized, they are only understood when expanded. For example, "bring your own bagels", "bring your own bhang", "bring your own Bat'leth" (said in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager) or "build your own box" in hacker jargon. Overall it is a very popular initialism that is often used to mean different things by intent. Another meaning that is also not common for BYOB is "be your own boss", meaning that the person who it is said to should stop taking orders and make their own. This is more commonly used in Anarchistic terms.

BYOB, stemming from "build your own burger", is also the name of a customized gourmet burgers restaurant in Karachi, Pakistan.

BYOB is also an American slang term for "Bring Your Own Bitch" when referring to bringing a companion to a party.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Regional Variations 2 Etymology 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Regional Variations

In Australia, the colloquialism is often changed slightly to the initialism BYOG, meaning "bring your own grog". This is frequently used to describe a party where guests are expected to bring their own alcoholic beverages.

In Hong Kong, BYOB is abbreviated as Bring Your Own Bag, an environmental public service announcement campaign in the 1990s to encourage people to keep the use of plastic shopping bags to a minimum.^[1] In Singapore, this initialism is also in use, where there is a Bring Your Own Bag day on the first Wednesday of every month, to encourage the reduction of plastic bag usage at stores.

In Calgary, Canada, it is known during the days of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede to mean "bring your own both", where "both" refers to beer and beef. Street slang in Calgary during the stampede has sometimes adapted this initialism to mean "bring your own breasts", in reference to the famous Cowboys Nightclub which pays for its waitresses' breast implants.

In Philippines, BYOB is abbreviated as Bring Your Own Baon; baon being the Tagalog of food. This is most commonly used to let the guests in a party know to bring their own food in a potluck.

[edit] Etymology

The term is cited by some online sources to have been used first in the early 1970s^[2] to mean "bring your own bottle", with other meanings only taking hold later.

An alternate etymology is being discussed however, which is rumoured to be due for consideration by BBC television's popular series Balderdash & Piffle which challenges viewers to push back the official known dates of reference for various unusual words, for consideration by the Oxford English Dictionary. This alternative suggests that in the early 19^th century, the term BYOB was used in society slang to mean "bring your own basket", with reference to group picnics. A basket would of course often include alcoholic beverages, but this is not believed to have been the primary focus of the term. This version is also supported by the Modern Drunkard Magazine.

It is generally recognised that the more modern subversion of the term was initiated by drinkers in the 1950s, but it is still contested as to on which side of the Atlantic it first occurred.

[edit] References

1. ^ hackwriters.com - Tabytha's World Tour - Hong Kong Dash
2. ^ "BYOB - Definitions from Dictionary.com". http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/BYOB. Retrieved on 2006-12-11. 

[edit] External links

• GoBYO.com, the easiest way to find restaurants that allow you to bring your own wine
• BYOBs.com, a searchable directory of BYOB restaurants
• Corkage Fees for Orange County, CA Restaurants
• Modern Drunkard Magazine, History and Origins of Drinking Words and Phrases
• Oxford English Dictionary with BBC, Balderdash and Piffle previous seasons word hunts
• Bring Your Own Bag
• Bring Your Own Bag Designs