Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Not too many decades ago, the word moxie was commonly employed as a slangy American synonym for courage, vigor and spirit.

This term was born in 1884 in Lowell, Massachusetts with the advent of a liquid tonic called "Moxie Nerve Food." Its inventors asserted the drink could cure "brain and nervous exhaustion, loss of manhood, softening of the brain and mental imbecility." Moxie Nerve Food was popular as an elixir until the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act forced its manufacturer to abandon the medicinal claims.

It was thereafter presented as Moxie, a soda pop. Poured into car-shaped bottles called Moxiemobiles, it was the favorite drink of President Calvin Coolege in the 1920s. Moxie's popularity peaked in 1925, and was gradually eclipsed by rivals Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola.

No one is certain why its inventor, Dr. Augustin Thompson, christened his elixir "Moxie," but most word watchers contend that its synonymy with courage and vitality was a result of its early medicinal claims to restore energy and manhood. The slang sense of the word was first recorded in print in the 1930s.

Radio Script > Moxie