aqua vitae
American Heritage Dictionary:
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aqua vi·tae
(vī'tē) 
n.
Strong distilled alcohol, especially a strong liquor such as whiskey or brandy.
n.
Strong distilled alcohol, especially a strong liquor such as whiskey or brandy.
[Middle English aqua vite, from Medieval Latin aqua vītae. See aquavit.]
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[AHK-wuh VEE-tee; AK-wuh VEE-tee] A clear distilled brandy; Latin for "water of life". See also eau de vie.
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Aqua vitae
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This article is incomplete. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (August 2011) |
For the video game also known as Aquatopia, see Aqua Vita (video game).
For the Twilight Zone episode, see Aqua Vita.
Aqua vitae /ˌeɪkwə ˈvaɪtiː/ (Latin for "water of life") or aqua vita is an archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol. The term was in wide use during the Middle Ages, although its origin is undoubtedly much earlier, having been used by Saint Patrick and his fellow monks to refer to both the alcohol and the waters of baptism. This Latin term appears in a wide array of dialectical forms throughout all lands and people conquered by ancient Rome. Generally, the term is a generic name for all types of distillates, and eventually came to refer specifically to distillates of alcoholic beverages and liquors.[1]
Aqua vitae was typically prepared by distilling wine; it was sometimes called spirits of wine in English texts, a name for brandy that had been repeatedly distilled.
A local translation of aqua vitae was often applied to an important, locally-produced distilled spirit. This leads to whisky in Scotland (from Gaelic, uisge-beatha), whiskey in Ireland (from Irish, uisce beatha), eau de vie in France, acquavite in Italy, and akvavit in Scandinavia. When the term is used in England, it usually refers to French brandy. Aqua vitae was also known in Slavic lands. It appears in Polish okowita, Ukrainian оковита (okovyta), Belarusian акавіта (akavita), and яковита (yakovita) in southern Russian dialects.
See also
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References
- ^ Scully, Terence (1995) The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages, pg. 159, ISBN 0-85115-611-8
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 edition of The Grocer's Encyclopedia.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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