firewater
High-proof alcoholic beverage, especially whiskeyHigh-proof alcoholic beverage, especially whiskey (especially in the context of its sale to or consumption by Native Americans).
Meaning
4 senses(countable, informal, uncountable)High-proof alcoholic beverage, especially whiskey (especially in the context of its sale to or consumption by Native Americans).
Feuerwasser
огненная водаognennaja voda
(countable, especially, uncountable)Water for use in firefighting.
Löschwasser
(countable, uncountable)High-temperature hydraulic condensate discharged from industrial boilers.
(countable, obsolete, uncountable)Synonym of alkahest.
- any strong spirits (such as strong whisky or rum)
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 2
Origin
A calque of a Native American language term, probably Ojibwe ishkodewaaboo (“alcohol”), frA calque of a Native American language term, probably Ojibwe ishkodewaaboo (“alcohol”), from ishkodew- (“fire”) + -aaboo (“liquid”, glossed in older works as “water”). A number of other Algonquian, Siouan and Athabaskan languages also refer to whiskey with compounds that mean "fire-water" (on which basis noted Algonquianist Leonard Bloomfield even reconstructed a Proto-Algonquian word for it, *eškwete·wa·po·wi, although this cannot have existed). The motivation of the name is not entirely clear: It may refer to the “burning” feeling of ingesting high-proof alcohol, or to its flammability; alternatively, it may refer to how low-quality spirits also often included ingredients such as pepper, which burned.
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Forms
plural: firewaters| Singular | firewater |
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| Plural | firewaters |
regular
Synonyms
23 synonymsWord family
2 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable