Churchkey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Church key refers to various kinds of bottle and can openers. One prototypical variety of church key is made from a single piece of pressed metal, with a pointed end used for piercing cans and a rounded end used for opening bottles. The widget used to peel back the lid of sardine cans is also sometimes called a church key.

Although some resemble keys, the phrase may just be a euphemism, since it is used for opening beer bottles and not churches.

Although the phrase seems to have come into use in the twentieth-century, some explanations give it an almost mythic significance; for example, in Medieval Europe, monks and nobility were the only brewers. Lagering cellars in the monasteries were locked, as the monks guarded the secrets to their craft. The monks carried keys to these lagering cellars on their cinch - or belts. It was this key from which the "Church Key" opener gets its name.