What Is a Dram? Whiskey's Most Precise (And Imprecise) Pour

Although the word dram was originally used colloquially to mean a small quantity of anything, it eventually came to be used primarily to describe an amount of liquid of a drink, specifically the amount of liquid drunk all at once. For instance, you might have heard, “I’m dying of thirst, can you give me a dram of water?” At some point, during the 1800’s, dram came to refer only to spirits, rather than any drink and a dram was both the drink itself, such as a dram of whiskey, or the act of drinking it. So, to dram was to have a drink, usually referring to small drinks, such as taking a “dram of brandy.” A person who imbibed regularly was known as a dram-drinker.

Pouring a "dram" or small drink (shot) of whiskey.

Dram is often thought of as a Scottish word and is found in the name of the Scotch Whiskey liqueur, Drambuie and liqueurs were also called sweet drams. The word was also used to name a Jamaican allspice flavored rum liqueur, called Allspice dram, Jamaican dram, or Pimento dram.

From Apothecaries to Avoirdupois: The Weight of a Dram

Originally, the word dram was a contracted form of the word drachma from Late Latin and Old French. In middle English the word was dragme. It was originally used to describe a minute quantity of something. Druggists and apothecaries used the word dram as a unit of measurement meaning 1/8 of an ounce, or sixty grains. The U.S customary system, which uses the Avoirdupois mass (weight) units, uses the dram (drachm) to mean 1/16 of an ounce, or 27.34 grains.

Notice that both the Apothecaries and the Avoirdupois systems use the grain as a basic unit of mass. They both also have ounces, but as you can see, the relationship between grains and ounces is different in each. The US Customary System and the British Imperial System are identical, except that they differ when it comes to units larger than a pound.

The Secret History of Liquor: The “dram” isn’t the only mystery found in a glass of whiskey. If you’ve ever wondered about the deeper history of the bottle, discover exactly Why Alcohol is Called “Spirits” and follow the historic and linguistic trails to see Where Whiskey Actually Came From.

The Golden Dram: A Unit of Ancient Currency

Similar to the British pound, when the value of coins was based on the actual amount of precious metal they contained, the word dram was sometimes used to describe a monetary unit, and still is today, in some countries, such as Armenia, where 100 Luma equals one Dram and there are dram coins valued from three up to 500 Dram.

The Biblical Dram: Searching for the Persian Daric

In fact, dram as a way of describing money or treasure, is mentioned in the Bible in 1 Chronicles 29.7. There, the writer (which may have been Ezra), uses the word as a familiar way of describing an amount of treasure for “The service of the house of God” in the days of David:

And gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. – (King James Version)

English Editions of the Bible appearin later sometimes replace the word dram with daric. The word dram is also used to to describe the Persian daric. The Hebrew words originally used were probably adarkon and darkemon and the Greek word for this was dareikos.

This coin was currency among the Jews after their return from Babylon while under Persian domination. It was about 128 Troy grains (about 15 grams or 1/2 oz) and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, coin mentioned in any written history. There are several mentions in the Book of Ezra and in Nehemiah.

Whether it was a Persian coin in the days of Ezra or a precise grain of medicine in an 18th-century apothecary, the word has always represented a small, precious portion. It is this legacy of ‘small but potent’ that eventually cemented the word’s place in the world of spirits.

The Modern Pour: How Big is a “Dram” Today?

After traveling through ancient Persia and the apothecary shops of the 1800s, the word has landed firmly back behind the bar. Today, if you ask for a dram in a Scottish pub, you are looking for a standard pour of Scotch.

However, even this is subject to regional definitions. In Scotland, a standard measure is typically 25ml or 35ml, though a “generous dram” is often measured by the hospitality of the host rather than a graduated cylinder.

Whether you call it a shot, a finger, or a dram, the word remains a linguistic bridge, connecting a 2,500-year-old gold coin to the glass of whiskey sitting on your coaster. It is perhaps the only unit of measurement that transitioned from a literal weight of gold to a figurative weight of “good spirits.”