corkage

UK/ˈkɔːkɪdʒ/US/ˈkɔɹkɪd͡ʒ/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — cork sits at #4,918Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Corkage is a fee for drinking wine you brought yourself. A corkage fee, no corkage on Mondays, ten pounds corkage.

It exists because a restaurant makes most of its margin on drink, so the charge replaces what it lost. Some places waive it on quiet nights, and bringing a bottle without asking first is a genuine breach of manners.

Definitions of corkage

1nouncorkageA fee for drinking wine you brought yourself.C1
“The restaurant lets you bring your own wine but charges ten pounds corkage.”

corkage is a fee.

Where it comes from

Cork plus -age, the ending naming a charge, as in postage.

Spanish
corcho
Middle Dutch
curc
Middle English
cork
English
cork
English, today
corkage

From cork + age. cork comes from Middle English cork, from Middle Dutch curc, from Spanish corcho. From Middle English cork (“oak bark, cork”), from Middle Dutch curc (“cork (material or object)”), either from Spanish corcho (“cork (material or object)”) (also corcha or corche) or from osp alcorque (“cork sole”). a doublet of cortex.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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