whisky的词源

英文词源

whisky

whisky: [18] Whisky denotes etymologically ‘water of life’. The word is short for an earlier whiskybae, which was an alteration of usquebaugh; and this in turn was an anglicization of Gaelic uisge beatha ‘water of life’ (Gaelic uisge ‘water’ comes from the same Indo-European source as English water, and beatha ‘life’ is related to Latin vīta ‘life’ and English vital). The distinction in spelling between Scotch whisky and American and Irish whiskey goes back no further than the 19th century. French eau de vie ‘brandy’, literally ‘water of life’, is semantically identical.
=> vital, water

whisky (n.)

see whiskey.

中文词源

whisky：威士忌酒

酒在欧洲不少语言中都有“生命之水”的美称。拉丁语称烈酒为aqua vītae，瑞典语称烈酒为akvavit，法语称烧酒即白兰地为eau-de-vie，它们都含有“生命之水”的意思。

whisky这一酒名被汉语音译为“威士忌（酒）”，它源自苏格兰盖尔语uisge beatha和爱尔兰盖尔语uisce beatha，字面含义也是“生命之水”。由于这种酒备受英王亨利八世（Henry VIII, 1491-1547）的青睐，所以它的大名也得以推而广之，先是英语化为usquebaugh，继而演变为whiskybae，最后又缩略为whisky。这是英国英语、加拿大英语、苏格兰语以及德语的拼写形式，美国英语、爱尔兰语以及法语则拼为whiskey。（参见vodka）

该词的英语词源请访问找单词词源英文版：whisky 词源，whisky 含义。