whiskey

See also: Whiskey

English

Glass of Irish whiskey.

Alternative forms

• whisky (England, Scotland, Canada)

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Borrowed from Irish uisce beatha, Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha (literally “water of life”), from Proto-Celtic *udenskyos (“water”) + *biwotos (“life”), from *biwos (“alive”), calque of Latin aqua vitae.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪski/
• IPA^(key): /ˈʍɪski/
• Rhymes: -ɪski
• Hyphenation: whis‧key

Noun

whiskey (countable and uncountable, plural whiskeys or whiskies)

1. (Ireland, US) A liquor distilled from the fermented mash of grain (as rye, corn, or barley).
   • 1753, “Historical Chronicle”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume XXIII, page 391:

     The exceſſive drinking of ſpirituous liquours, eſpecially whiſkey, is now become ſo common, that more people are killed by them, than by ſmall-pox, fevers, broken limbs, accidents, and all other diſtempers put together. And we are credibly informed, that in one dram ſhop only in this town, there are 120 gallons of that accurſed ſpirit, whiſkey, ſold.

2. (Ireland, US) A drink of whiskey.
3. (historical) A light gig or carriage; a tim-whiskey.
4. The letter W in the ICAO spelling alphabet.

Usage notes

The regional spellings whiskey and whisky are also used world-wide to distinguish regional drinks, for example bourbon whiskey, but Scotch whisky.

Derived terms

• whiskey dick

Translations

alcoholic drink

• Afrikaans: whisky
• Alabama: okiimi
• Albanian: uiski (sq)
• Arabic: وِيسْكِي m (wíski)
• Armenian: վիսկի (hy) (viski)
• Asturian: güisqui m
• Azerbaijani: viski
• Belarusian: ві́скі n (víski)
• Bengali: হুইস্কি (huiski)
• Breton: wiski (br) m
• Bulgarian: уи́ски (bg) n (uíski)
• Burmese: ဝီစကီ (my) (wica.ki)
• Catalan: whisky m
• Central Melanau: wiski
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 威士忌酒 (wai¹ si⁶ gei^6-2 zau²), 威士忌 (wai¹ si⁶ gei^6-2)

  Mandarin: 威士忌酒 (zh) (wēishìjì jiǔ), 威士忌 (zh) (wēishìjì)

• Coast Miwok: ʔómu líwa
• Cornish: hwiski m
• Czech: whisky (cs) f
• Danish: whisky c
• Dutch: whiskey (nl) m
• Esperanto: viskio
• Estonian: viski
• Finnish: viski (fi)
• French: whisky (fr) m
• Galician: whisky (gl) m
• Georgian: ვისკი (visḳi)
• German: Whisky (de) m
• Greek: ουίσκι (el) n (ouíski)
• Greenlandic: whisky
• Hebrew: וויסקי m (víski)
• Hindi: व्हिस्की (hi) f (vhiskī), विलायती पानी m (vilāytī pānī), मदिरा (hi) f (madirā), शराब (hi) m (śarāb)
• Hungarian: whisky (hu)
• Icelandic: viskí
• Ido: wiskio (io)
• Indonesian: wiski (id)
• Irish: fuisce (ga) m, uisce beatha m
• Italian: whisky (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: ウィスキー (ja) (uisukī)
• Kazakh: виски (viski)
• Khmer: វីស្គី (viiskii)
• Korean: 위스키 (ko) (wiseuki)
• Kyrgyz: виски (viski)
• Latvian: viskijs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: viskis m
• Macedonian: виски n (viski)
• Malay: wiski
• Manx: ushtey bea m
• Maori: wihikē
• Mongolian: виски (mn) (viski)
• Norwegian: whisky (no) c
• Persian: ویسکی (fa) (viski)
• Polish: whisky (pl) f
• Portuguese: uísque (pt) m, whisky (pt) m
• Romanian: whisky (ro) n
• Russian: ви́ски (ru) m or n (víski)
• Scottish Gaelic: uisge-beatha m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: виски m

  Roman: viski (sh) m

• Slovak: whisky f
• Slovene: viski (sl) m
• Spanish: whisky (es) m, wiski m, güisqui m
• Swahili: wiski (sw)
• Swedish: whisky (sv) c, visky (sv) c
• Tagalog: wiski
• Tajik: виски (visk-i)
• Thai: วิสกี้ (wís-gîi)
• Turkish: viski (tr)
• Turkmen: wiski
• Ukrainian: ві́скі n (víski)
• Urdu: وہسکی f (vhiskī), مدیرا f (madirā)
• Uzbek: viski (uz)
• Vietnamese: huých-ki, uytky (vi), rượu uytky
• Volapük: viskin (vo), (older term) filavin, (translation from Goidelic) lifavat
• Welsh: chwisgi m
• Yiddish: וויסקי (viski)

the letter "W" in ICAO spelling alphabet

• Estonian: whiskey (et)
• Finnish: wiski
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: Washington (it)

See also

• whiskey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English whiskey.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋɪski/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: whis‧key

Noun

whiskey m (plural whiskeys, diminutive whiskeytje n)

1. (a glass of) whiskey

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French

Alternative forms

• whisky

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Borrowed from English whisky, whiskey, from Irish uisce beatha, Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha (literally “water of life”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wis.ki/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

whiskey m (plural whiskeys)

1. whiskey (drink)

Further reading

• “whiskey”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Portuguese

Noun

whiskey m (plural s)

1. Alternative form of uísque

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Spanish

Etymology

From English whiskey

Noun

whiskey m (plural whiskeys or whiskey)

1. whiskey