Tastes the Same Anyhow.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 20, 19 May 1909, Page 60

Tastes the Same Anyhow.

The origin of the name whisky ha* puzzled the dictionary makers, but most of them have followed Johnson in making it derive from the Irish word usquebaugh, which he defines as “an Irish compound distilled spirit, drawn from aromatics; the Highland sort by corruption they call whisky.” Noah Webster, dissatisfied with this, says in the earlier editions of his dictionary that it is derived from the Welsh “gwiski.” In the late editions he tells us it is either the "Irish or Gaelic uisge, water; in uisgebeatha, whisky, properly water of life.” Thus the learned lexicographers. Now comes one who has made wine and spirits a life study and written authoritatively about them inN.many books, with the assertion that these learned gentlemen are all wrong. This is what lie says: —“If our lexicographers will but turn their attention to that good

old English word whisky, and then bear in mind the tendency of the people for nicknaming, the matter will assume another and different aspects. Whisky means a light chaise which came into use originally to avoid the taxes that were levied on vehivles according to their size. The name originated in the country districts and is derived from the root ‘whisk.’ For marketing the liquor this vehicle was in great demand among the smugglers, for, owing to its lightness, rapid time could be made when necessity demanded. The smugglers could not handicap themselves with so cumbersome a means of travel, and the one-horse whisky holding a cask of five or ten gallons safely hidden beneath the seat not only allayed suspicion, but was also an exceedingly handy vehicle for travelling through byroads and unfrequented paths.”