# whisky

Pronunciation: say "WIS-kee" /ˈwɪski/

## Noun

1. Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain. *(dialectal, Australia, Canada, Scotland)* — Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor.
   - Simple: Another spelling of whiskey. People often use this spelling for whiskey made in Scotland or Canada.
   - _She sipped her whisky slowly by the fire while the rain came down._
   - _Distilleries in the Highlands have produced whisky for centuries._
2. Alternative form of whiskey, in the sense of a light gig or carriage. — Alternative form of whiskey (“a light gig or carriage”).
   - Simple: Another spelling of whiskey. Here it means a light, fast carriage that one horse pulled.
   - _The young lawyer arrived at the manor in an elegant whisky drawn by a single bay horse._
   - _He left the whisky at the inn's stable and went inside for supper._

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — It is a variant of usque, short for usquebaugh, from Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha ("water of life"), which itself translates the Medieval Latin aqua vitae. The same source gives words like akvavit, aquavit, and eau de vie.
**Meaning 2** — It was formed from whisk combined with the suffix -y.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/whisky (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).