On 7/29/06, Michael Snow wikipedia@earthlink.net wrote:
All it fundamentally means is something non-alcoholic, as in the opposite of "hard drink". Lemonade can be a soft drink (unless of course it's hard lemonade), but it doesn't qualify as pop or soda. As with freeway/motorway/etc., there is no single satisfactory term that both includes all that should be included, and excludes all that should be excluded. If you want to say carbonated non-alcoholic flavo(u)red beverage with absolute precision, that's what you have to say.
Actually in Australia the term "fizzy drink" is sometimes used (especially informally), and that seems by far the most accurate and least open to misinterpretation.
Not that I'm suggesting it.
Or would someone claim that beer would be a "fizzy drink"...hhmm.
Steve