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Whisky comes from Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha (in Irish, uisce beatha), “water of life”. English speakers first borrowed it as usquebaugh and later shortened it to whisky. The Gaelic phrase was itself a translation of the Latin aqua vitae, the name medieval Europe gave to distilled spirits.

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Distilling spread across Europe in the Middle Ages, and spirits were first valued as medicine, hence the hopeful name. The earliest records from Ireland and Scotland are brief. The Irish Annals of Clonmacnoise note a chieftain who died in 1405 after drinking too much aqua vitae at Christmas, and Scotland's Exchequer Rolls for 1495 record malt sent to Friar John Cor, by order of the king, to make aqua vitae. English borrowed the Gaelic word as uskebeaghe in 1581 and usquebaugh by 1610; the short form whisky settled in during the 18th century. Other languages kept the same idea: French eau-de-vie and Scandinavian akvavit also mean “water of life”. Spelling now follows geography: Scotland, Canada and Japan write whisky, while Ireland and the United States mostly write whiskey.

Türkçe oku
Viski sözcüğünün kökü, İskoç Galcesinde “hayat suyu” anlamına gelen uisge beatha deyimidir (İrlandacada uisce beatha). İngilizce bu deyimi önce usquebaugh diye aldı, zamanla da whisky'ye kısalttı. Gal deyiminin kendisi de Orta Çağ Avrupa'sında damıtılmış içkilere verilen Latince aqua vitae adının çevirisidir.

Damıtma tekniği Orta Çağ'da Avrupa'ya yayıldı ve damıtılmış içkiler ilk başta ilaç diye kullanıldı; “hayat suyu” adı da buradan gelir. İrlanda ve İskoçya'daki en eski kayıtlar kısadır. İrlanda'daki Clonmacnoise Yıllıkları, 1405'te Noel'de fazla aqua vitae içtiği için ölen bir klan reisinden söz eder. İskoçya'nın 1495 tarihli hazine kayıtlarında ise kralın emriyle Keşiş John Cor'a aqua vitae yapması için malt gönderildiği yazılıdır. İngilizce, Gal dillerindeki sözcüğü 1581'de uskebeaghe, 1610'da usquebaugh biçiminde aldı; kısa hâli whisky 18. yüzyılda yerleşti. Başka diller de aynı fikri korudu: Fransızcadaki eau-de-vie ve İskandinav dillerindeki akvavit de “hayat suyu” demektir. Yazılışı bugün coğrafyaya göre değişir: İskoçya, Kanada ve Japonya whisky, İrlanda ve ABD ise çoğunlukla whiskey yazar. Türkçedeki viski de İngilizceden gelir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Whisky
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