Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
whisky
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Remove ads
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Variant of usque, abbreviation of usquebaugh (compare obsolete whiskybae), from Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha (“water of life”), calque of Medieval Latin aqua vitae. Compare akvavit, aquavit, aqua vitae, eau de vie, and water of life from the same source.
Noun
whisky (countable and uncountable, plural whiskies)
- (Scotland, Canada, Australia) Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor. [early 18th century]
- Synonym: (chiefly Ireland, Scotland, dated or archaic) usquebaugh
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
Usage notes
- The regional spellings whisky and whiskey (from the Irish form of the same Gaelic word) are used worldwide to distinguish regional drinks, for example Scotch whisky, but Irish whiskey and bourbon whiskey.
Derived terms
Translations
whisky — see whiskey
Etymology 2
Noun
whisky (plural whiskies)
- (historical) Alternative form of whiskey (“a light gig or carriage”).
- 1768, Ignatius Sancho, letter to Mr. M—, in Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, London: J. Nichols, 3rd edition, 1784, pp. 7-8,
- Look into old age, you will see avarice joined to poverty—letchery, gout, impotency, like three monkeys, or London bucks, in a one-horse whisky, driving to the Devil.
- 1797, Charlotte Lennox, chapter 4, in The History of Sir George Warrington, volume 1, London: J. Bell, page 46:
- At the appointed time Mr. Kettering’s one-horse chaise, or rather whisky, drove up to the door; for, as it was principally intended for him to visit his patients, when disinclined to mount his horse, it was built in the lightest manner, and without a head, that it might move with the greater expedition.
- 1768, Ignatius Sancho, letter to Mr. M—, in Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, London: J. Nichols, 3rd edition, 1784, pp. 7-8,
Derived terms
Remove ads
Catalan
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
Czech
Alternative forms
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
whisky f (indeclinable)
Further reading
- “whisky”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
- “whisky”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
- “whisky”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025
Remove ads
Danish
Noun
whisky c (singular definite whiskyen, plural indefinite whiskyer)
Declension
Dutch
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
whisky m (plural whisky's, diminutive whisky'tje n)
Finnish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
whisky
- alternative form of viski (“whiskey”)
- alternative form of wiski (“Finnish spelling alphabet for "W"”)
Declension
Remove ads
French
Alternative forms
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
Further reading
- “whisky”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Galician
Etymology
Noun
whisky m (plural whiskys)
Greenlandic
Etymology
Noun
whisky (plural whiskyt)
Further reading
- whisky in Katersat
Hungarian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
whisky (plural whiskyk)
- whisky (USA, Ireland: whiskey)
Declension
Italian
Norman
Norwegian Bokmål
Norwegian Nynorsk
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads