The term “fifth” in reference to a 750 ml bottle of alcohol is rooted in historical context. To understand why a 750 ml bottle is called a fifth, we need to go back to the late 19th century.
During that time, there were legal regulations governing the sale of alcohol in the United States. One such regulation stated that individual commercial alcohol sales were limited to one-fifth of a gallon. This means that any bottle larger than a fifth had to be sold wholesale, rather than sold to individual consumers.
The term “fifth” itself refers to the fraction of a gallon that the bottle represents. In the US customary system, a gallon is divided into four quarts, and each quart is further divided into two pints. Therefore, a fifth of a gallon is equivalent to one-fifth of four quarts, which is approximately 757 ml. However, for convenience, this quantity is rounded down to 750 ml.
The use of the term “fifth” persisted even after the legal regulations changed. It became a commonly used term to refer to a 750 ml bottle of alcohol, regardless of the specific type of liquor it contained. This standardization allowed consumers to easily recognize the size of the bottle and understand how much alcohol it contained.
It’s worth noting that the term “fifth” is primarily used in the United States. In other countries, such as those using the metric system, the bottle size is usually referred to as 750 ml or simply as a “750.”
While the historical significance of the term “fifth” may not have much relevance in today’s context, it has become ingrained in the vernacular of alcohol consumption. So, when you hear someone refer to a 750 ml bottle as a fifth, you can trace its origin back to the legal restrictions on alcohol sales in the late 19th century.
A 750 ml bottle of alcohol is called a fifth due to historical regulations that limited individual commercial alcohol sales to one-fifth of a gallon. Despite the change in regulations, the term “fifth” has persisted and become a widely recognized measurement for this bottle size.