sabaia

• sabaium

Illyrian. Probably from Proto-Indo-European *sab- (“taste; juice”), whence Proto-West Germanic *sap (“juice, sap”), and Sanskrit सबर् (sabar, “juice, nectar”).^[1][2]

sabaia f sg (genitive *sabaiae); first declension

1. A kind of Illyrian beer, made out of barley or wheat.
   • c. 390 CE, Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 26.8.2:

     Est autem sabaia ex ordeo vel frumento in liquorem conversus paupertinus in Illyrico potus.

     Sabaia is a wretched drink made in Illyria out of barley or wheat.

   • [(Can we date this quote?) Hieronymus, commentary to Isaias 7.19:

     quod genus est potionis ex frugibus aquaque confectum ei vulgo in Dalmatiae Pannoniaeque provinciis gentili barbaroque sermone appellatur sabaium

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

First-declension noun, singular only.

• sabaiārius (“beer-drinker; drinker of sabaia”)