subs. (American).—A very old name for a mixture of rum and spruce beer, being quoted by Grose in 1785 as ‘an American beverage.’ The last two syllables of the word are thought to be derived from the French bagasse, the refuse of the sugar cane. This view would seem to be supported by the fact that rum is itself a product of the sugar cane.
1861. L. DE BOILEAU, Recollections of Labrador Life, p. 162. ‘CALLIBOGUS,’—a mixture of rum and spruce-beer, ‘more of the former and less of the latter.’
