Christine Dabney > wrote:

>And it is refered to as a simple syrup in my grandmother's recipe for
>fruit cake...whereby dried apricots are simmered in it briefly. That
>recipe predates me by a long time..and I was born in 1951.

So I guess the phrase had been around for awhile, among bakers
and cooks, before it spilled over into bartender usage.

Maybe the fact that I've never actually cooked anything that
includes simple syrup is why I think of it as bar syrup.

Steve