Hi everyone, and welcome to our new segment 【It Means What?】欢迎大家回来我们的新版块【词源考古研究所】.

In this segment, we’re going to explore the interesting origin of words and phrases. So 安澜, what is the word for today?

Well, today I've chosen one of my favorite words in English.

Let me guess, it's alcoholic.

Yes.

安澜这个酒“精”啊.

It is whiskey.

就是威士忌. Actually I'm not a whiskey drinker but I always wondered, that doesn't sound English that the word whiskey.

No, it actually comes from a Gaelic word.

Gaelic is the language from Scotland?

Gaelic is a language from northern Scotland and it's completely different to English.

So you wouldn't understand Gaelic.

I would not understand Gaelic. Actually you can watch Gaelic programs on BBC.

What's the point if you don't understand it.

Exactly, and it's just so it's very, very different from English.

这个叫苏格兰盖尔语. If you are interested, you can check it out online and see how it sounds.

Yes. So it comes from this Gaelic word which means “water of life”.

Water of life, isn't that Aqua vitae? Oh, that's Latin.

So the Gaelic is “Uisge Beatha” , so it’s Uisge and it became whiskey.

所以是苏格兰盖尔语里面的叫做 “water of life”, 生命之水.

Now the reason why they called it “water of life” is that whiskey was not actually originally a drink to be enjoyed. It was a medicine.

I thought it was just because they really loved drinking.

No, so whiskey started to be distilled in Scotland, so you distill whiskey. You don't make whiskey.

蒸馏, distill. It's like with wine, you fermented, 如果是葡萄酒水果酒它是发酵, 然后 whisky这种烈酒很多是蒸馏distilled.

It started to be distilled in Scotland and Ireland in the 15th century. It was given as a medicine.

To treat what, boredom?

Everything, pretty much. It was actually made by doctors. So whiskey wasn't made in big distilleries like it is nowadays, it was actually just made by doctors.

I guess, kind of like a folk remedy type of thing.

And they used it for everything. Things like treating the plague, they use it for surprisingly enough, they used it for depression.

Well, that will treat depression probably, when you're drunk, you probably, I don't know probably slightly happier when you're inebriated.

So as you can imagine, people started to like the taste and then they started to drink it for fun.

Actually 安澜, I would like to ask you something related now we know that whiskey comes from Gaelic, Scottish language.

When I see a whiskey bottle, 现在因为酒馆也有在做酒的生意, 所以就经常会去这种展会, 然后就看到 whisky的瓶子上面会写 scotch. Scotch that means Scottish like whiskey from Scotland.

This is the really strange thing. In England and in other parts of the world, we call Scottish whiskey ‘scotch’, but in Scotland they call it ‘whiskey’.

Because for them is just whiskey.

They don't call it ‘our whiskey’ or anything like that.

Is it because outside the Scotland, they need to say scotch whiskey to set a distinction between whiskey from Scotland and whiskey from other places like, for example, from America or from Japan.

Yes, to a certain extent, but I think it's just something that we got used to saying.

Originally it was just called scotch whiskey, so obviously over time, it gets shortened into scotch.

I see. 所以大家如果喜欢喝苏格兰威士忌, 就会听到英文里说Scotch.

So you now know that the original word whiskey is from the Gaelic word which means water of life.

I'll drink to that.

All right, and I think we're gonna wrap up here and that ends today's episode of 【It Means What ?】

If you like this segment, if you would like to request any specific word or phrase, leave us a comment in the comment section. Let us know what you think.

So until next time.

We'll see you next time. Bye.