White January - an etymological journey
White Water, "Danskvand", and White January - A Danish linguistic history of neutrality, moderation, and deliberate abstention
Today, the expression "White January" (Danish for Dry January) is often presented as something relatively new: a modern health phenomenon imported from abroad, driven by campaigns, statistics, and short-term lifestyle ambitions. Yet the language itself reveals that the word *white* in this context did not emerge out of nowhere. On the contrary, it belongs to a much older Danish linguistic and cultural tradition, in which "white" has long served as a designation for the neutral, the unadulterated, and that which is deliberately kept free from additions.
To understand why "white" today can mean alcohol-free, it is necessary to take a detour. Not through the history of alcohol, but through the history of water. Through carbonation, soda water, danskvand, and what for decades was simply called "white water".
In the mid-nineteenth century, carbonated water existed in Denmark without a unified identity. It was referred to as soda water, artificial mineral water, or seltzer, and the language surrounding it was primarily technical. It was not a pleasure product in the modern sense, but a functional one, associated with health, digestion, and medicinal effect.
With industrialisation in the late nineteenth century, this began to change. Soda water moved from the domain of pharmacies into everyday life. At the same time, beverages became more varied. Here, the need arose for a linguistic counterpoint to the coloured varieties, and "white" began to function as a designation for the colourless and unblended.
In the early twentieth century, mineral water production became professionalised. "White", "lemon", and "raspberry" became practical categories. At the same time, the term danskvand gained ground as a collective designation for carbonated water in Denmark.
When a product is called danskvand, this is not merely a technical decision, but also a cultural one. The name places the water as something domestic and familiar.
Side note: In the period following the defeat in 1864, the idea emerged that what had been lost outwardly must be regained inwardly through culture, language, and everyday practices. In that context, it made sense to give even neutral everyday products a national name.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the terms soda water, danskvand, and white water existed side by side. Here, "white" did not mean abstinence, but simply that nothing had been added.
After the Second World War, danskvand became the dominant term, while "white water" gradually receded and took on a more colloquial character. At the same time, "white" began to appear in a new context.
In the 1970s, Sweden introduced expressions such as "white week" and "white month", referring to periods without alcohol. Here, "white" no longer referred to colour, but to absence.
In the 1990s, "white periods" began to appear in Danish media as a designation for deliberate pauses from alcohol. The expression quickly became self-explanatory and was understood as temporary restraint and control, not rejection.
Seen in this context, White January is not an isolated phenomenon, but the latest link in a longer linguistic movement. From white water as a designation for the uncoloured, through Danish water as a national everyday product, to white as a word for the temporary abstention from alcohol. It is a way of speaking about moderation without turning it into a principle.