'Symposium' is Greek for 'drinking together' — a philosophical drinking party that lost the wine.
A conference or meeting for the discussion of a particular subject, especially an academic gathering where specialists present papers; originally, a drinking party with intellectual conversation.
From Latin 'symposium,' from Greek 'symposion' (a drinking party, a convivial gathering with conversation), from 'syn-' (together) + 'posis' (a drinking), from 'pinein' (to drink), from PIE *po(i)- (to drink). The Greek symposion was a highly ritualized after-dinner drinking party where conversation, music, poetry, and philosophical debate accompanied the consumption of wine. Plato's 'Symposium' (c. 385 BCE) immortalized the institution, and the word was later adopted