Etymology Dictionary

CAROUSE,  a drinking-bout.  (F.,—G.)   Orig. an adverb meaning 'completely,' or 'all out,' i.e. 'to the bottom,' used of drinking.   Whence the phrase, 'to quaff carouse,' to drink deeply.   'Robin, here's a carouse to good king Edward's self;' George a Greene, Old Plays, iii. 51 (Nares).   'The tippling sottes at midnight which to quaffe carowse do use, Wil hate thee if at any time to pledge them thou refuse;' Drant's Horace, ep. to Lollius.   (See Horat. Epist. i. 18. 91.   Drant died A.D. 1578.)   'He in that forest did death's cup carowse,' i.e. drink up; Mirror for Magistrates, p. 646.   'Then drink they all around, both men and women; and sometimes they carowse for the victory very filthily and drunkenly;' Hackluyt, Voyages, i. 96.   Also spelt garouse.   'Some of our captains garoused of his wine till they were reasonably pliant;' also, 'And are themselves the greatest garousers and drunkards in existence;' Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana, cited by Marsh (in Wedgwood).—F. carous, 'a carrouse of drinke;' Cotgrave.   He also gives:  'Carousser, to quaffe, swill, carousse it.'—G. garaus, adv., also used as a sb. to mean 'finishing stroke;' as in 'einer Sache das garaus machen, to put an end to a thing;' Flugel's Dict.   The G. garaus signifies literally 'right out,' and was specially used of emptying a bumper to any one's health, a custom which became so notorious that the word made its way not only into French and English, but even into Spanish; cf. Span. caraos, 'drinking a full bumper to one's health;' Meadows.—G. gar, adv. completely (O.H.G. karo, allied to E. gear and yare, which see); and aus, prep. out, cognate with E. out.   ¶ Similarly, the phr. allaus was sometimes used, from the G. all aus, i.e. all out, in exactly the same connection; and this phrase likewise found its way into French.   Cotgrave gives:  'Alluz, all out; or a carouse fully drunk up.'   It even found its way into English.   Thus Beaum. and Fletcher:  'Why, give's some wine then, this will fit us all; Here's to you, still my captain's friend! All out!' Beggar's Bush, Act ii. sc. 3.   Der. carouse, verb; also carous-al, in one sense of it, but not always; see Carousal. [†]

ADDENDA

It will be noticed that the G. garaus is an adverb.   We find the same adverbial use in English.   'I pledge them all carouse-a;' Like Will to Like, in Hazlitt's Old Plays, iii. 339.   Cf. 'And quaff carouses to thee of my blood,' id. xiv. 101.   'Carouse that bowl to me;' id. xiv. 135.    W. Kemp, in 1600, was 'offered carouses' by his entertainers; Eng. Garner, ed. Arber, vii. 20.