also tom-cat, "full-grown male cat," 1809, from Tom + cat (n.); probably influenced by Tom the Cat in the popular children's book "The Life and Adventures of a Cat" (1760). As a generic name it replaced Gib-cat (see Gib), from the familiar shortening of Gilbert, though Tom was applied to male kittens c. 1300.

The name Tom also has been used colloquially of the males of other beasts and birds since at least 1791, such as tom-turkey, which is attested by 1846. Tom-cod was used of various fishes from 1795. Also see Tibert.

The verb meaning "to pursue women promiscuously for sexual gratification" is recorded from 1927 in U.S. dialect. Related: Tom-catting.

"iced gin drink served in a tall glass" (called a Collins glass), 1940, American English; earlier Tom Collins (by 1878), and earlier still John Collins (by 1865).

Drink historian David Wondrich says the John Collins acquired its name from a poem composed by Charles and Frank Sheridan about a "head-waiter at Limmer's/The corner of Conduit Street, Hanover Square."

The variant name Tom Collins seems to have been the result of conflation with a popular prank of the time, in which a victim would be told that a man named Tom Collins had insulted him, thus the victim would be sent in search of this non-existent person; it may also have been influenced by Old Tom as the name for a style of gin used in the drink (for which see Old Tom.)

Popular in early 1940s; bartending purists at the time denied it could be based on anything but gin. The surname (12c.) is from a masc. proper name, a diminutive of Col, itself a pet form of Nicholas (compare Colin).

type of distilled drinking alcohol, 1714, shortening of geneva, altered (by influence of the name of the Swiss city, with which it has no connection) from Dutch genever "gin," literally "juniper" (because the alcohol was flavored with its berries), from Old French genevre "the plant juniper" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *jeniperus, from Latin juniperus "juniper" (see juniper).

[I]t was not till about 1724 that the passion for gin-drinking appears to have infected the masses of the population, and it spread with the rapidity and the violence of an epidemic. Small as is the place which this fact occupies in English history, it was probably, if we consider all the consequences that have flowed from it, the most momentous in that of the eighteenth century—incomparably more so than any event in the purely political or military annals of the country. [W.E.H. Lecky, "A History of England in the Eighteenth Century," 1878]

Gin and tonic is attested by 1873; gin-sling by 1790; gin-fizz (with lemon juice and aerated water) is from 1878. Gin-mill, U.S. slang for "low-class tavern or saloon where spirits are drunk" (1872) might be a play on the senses from gin (n.2). British gin-palace "gaudily decorated tavern or saloon where spirits are drunk" is from 1831. See also: Old Tom.

The card game gin rummy first attested 1941 (described in "Life" that year as the latest Hollywood fad); OED lists it with the entries for the liquor, but the sense connection seems obscure other than as a play on rummy.

1650s, "in an outdated style, formed in a fashion that has become obsolete," from old + past participle of fashion (v.). Meaning "partaking of the old ways, suited to the tastes of former times" is from 1680s. Related: Old-fashionedness. New-fashioned is recorded from 1610s.

As a type of cocktail, Old Fashioned is attested by 1901, American English, short for a fuller name.

Old Fashioned Tom Gin Cocktail Mix same as Holland Gin Old Fashioned Cocktail using Old Tom gin in place of Holland [George J. Kappeler, "Modern American Drinks," Akron, Ohio, 1900]

See also Old Tom.