English

water of life

Synonym of aqua vitae, a distilled spirit.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    Chiefly a calque of Medieval Latin aqua vītae directly and via Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha and Irish uisce beatha. Compare akvavit, aquavit, aqua vitae, eau de vie, whisky, and whiskey from the same sources. Compare also vodka, whose (borrowed) roots also refer to a special kind of water, as it were.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • calqueMedieval Latinaqua vītae “water of life”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishaqua vite
        • derivedFrencheau-de-vie “water of life”

    Sources