Cheers why say it

What is their cultural significance? While the ritual of clinking glasses has evolved to become a means of connection among friends, it started, like most things do, as an act of self-preservation. Over time, as fears of contaminated cocktails waned, the ritual took on a new meaning. Cheers to that. Orders must be shipped within the contiguous US.

Offer not valid for shipping to Hawaii or Alaska. July 25, at pm Reply. Laura says: Hah. It is excessively hot there! July 26, at am Reply. David says: Hehe! Never knew most of them there. Cheers for the awesome read. August 21, at am Reply. August 15, at am Reply. August 19, at am Reply. Laura says: Thanks Syrus! Great addition. August 19, at pm Reply. Trynstop says: Kanpai! Great Post.

Thanks for sharing. March 17, at pm Reply. Trynstop says: Great Post. June 14, at pm Reply. In the US, "cheers" is rarely used to mean "thanks". I'll say it the vast majority of the time instead. Native Brit here from East Anglia. I use 'Cheers' when someone a stranger has done something nice.

Like letting you get on a bus first, or holding a door open. I don't think there are any rules. It's just something I appropriated from other people. I reserve cheers solely for using on strangers. I'm not very consistent though, I tend to use either whenever I feel like it.

So defiantly no rules. I'd be interested to see what others say though. I am a waiter in a restaurant. When I give a drink to an English guest, he thanks me by saying "Thank you" and my answer is "Cheers". Sometimes I get a reply "cheers for that". I'm using "Cheers" like a salute. It is the equivalent of 'good health'. It must have been around the 's that it first started apearing in this guise, as far as my memory goes.

Its route into this part of colloquial English is unclear unless it came from the earlier 'Cheerio', which was used in lieu of 'farewell', and was certainly around during and probably before World War II. So far as I'm aware, 'Cheers' as a colloquial farewell is rather more recent than the more usual meaning of 'thank you'.

As the other UK comments have said, it's treated as a slightly more informal way of saying 'thanks' or 'thank you'. Given the tendency for Brits to be overly polite in certain situations, it comes in useful as a synonym: if you've already said thanks when being handed your drink, and when handing over the money, you'll need cheers when you get your change back. No we are not talking about the piece of bread you have for breakfast but the speech made at events such as weddings and birthdays.

It was both a Greek and Roman tradition to leave an offering to the gods, including alcoholic beverages, when they had big banquets. This was most commonly done when there was a feast following the death of a person.