Food & drink

whiskey

Medieval alchemists called distilled spirit aqua vitae, 'water of life'. French translated it as eau-de-vie, Scandinavians kept akvavit, Poles made it okowita — and the Irish translated it word for word as uisce beatha, which English clipped to whisky. Scotch and American whiskey then carried the Gaelic word to Japan, China, Russia and the Arab world.

Weakest linkProbable

The road to English

From Medieval Latin to Middle French

From Medieval Latin to Danish

From Medieval Latin to Polish, Ukrainian

From Irish to Scottish Gaelic

From English to American English

From English to French

From English to German

From English to Russian

From English to Japanese

From English to Mandarin Chinese

From English to Arabic

From English to Korean

1300Medieval Latin

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

whiskey

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The road to English

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