rootbeer

Noun

root beer (countable and uncountable, plural root beers)

1. A beverage, most often a carbonated soft drink made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses, among other things.
   • In 1919, when Roy Allen and Frank Wright started selling their new root beer beverage to a thirsty America, national Prohibition was taking its grip on the country. Their timing couldn't have been better. No longer able to legally drink real beer, thirsty patriots had to settle for this sweet...2002, Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes, Penguin, →ISBN
2. A dark reddish-brown color, similar to the drink.
   • I just keep staring at all the ink we have, that wild variety of color, everything from rootbeer, midnight blue and cochineal to mauve, light doe, lilac, south sea green, maize, even pelican black, all line up in these plastic caps[…]2000, Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, page 26