wine, women and song

Meanings

1. A hedonistic behavior or lifestyle.

Etymology

Attested in classical and medieval Latin, and similar variants also existed in English verse and proverbs such as "Weemen, dise and drinke, lets him nothing" (1576). The exact phrase itself first appeared in a German folk song in 1602 ("Wein, Weib, und Gesang"), while in English, it was first attested in 1857 in Henry Bohn's translation of Karl Joseph Simrock's proverb collection Die deutschen Sprichwörte. The proverb's popularity in English was increased by the 1899 publication of Wine, Women and Song, Medieval Latin Student Songs by John Addington Symonds.