firewater

English

Etymology

fire +‎ water, a calque of Ojibwe ishkodewaaboo (“alcohol”), from ishkode (“fire”) + aaboo (“liquid”, glossed in older works as “water”).

Noun

firewater (countable and uncountable; plural firewaters)

1. High proof alcohol, especially whiskey (especially in the context of its sale to or consumption by Native Americans).
   • 2012, Tom Lamont, How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world (in The Daily Telegraph, 15 November 2012)[1]

     Four polite Englishmen in their middle 20s, feigning like firewater drunks in a Eugene O'Neill play: it's exactly the stuff that makes their detractors groan.

2. High temperature hydraulic condensate discharged from industrial boilers.

Translations

high proof alcohol

• Czech: ohnivá voda
• Finnish: tuliliemi (fi)

high temperature hydraulic condensate

• Finnish: tulistettu vesi (fi)