whisky

Etymology

Attested since the early 18th century. Variant of usque, abbreviation of usquebaugh (compare obsolete whiskybae). From Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha and Irish uisce beatha (“water of life”). Compare aquavit, from Latin aqua vītae (“water of life”). The name of the light carriage comes from the English verb to whisk.

noun

1. (chiefly UK and Canada) An alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain and usually aged in oak barrels.
2. (chiefly UK and Canada) A drink of this liquor.
   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp
3. (historical) A light gig or carriage.
   1768, Ignatius Sancho, letter to Mr. M—, in Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, London: J. Nichols, 3rd edition, 1784, pp. 7-8, Look into old age, you will see avarice joined to poverty—letchery, gout, impotency, like three monkeys, or London bucks, in a one-horse whisky, driving to the Devil.
   Ye Ladies of Lapland who beesoms bestride, Or, pair’d in Witch Whiskeys, aslant the Moon slide; 1772, George Alexander Stevens, “The Portrait”, in Songs, Comic, and Satyrical, Oxford, page 202
   At the appointed time Mr. Kettering’s one-horse chaise, or rather whisky, drove up to the door; for, as it was principally intended for him to visit his patients, when disinclined to mount his horse, it was built in the lightest manner, and without a head, that it might move with the greater expedition. 1797, Charlotte Lennox, chapter 4, in The History of Sir George Warrington, volume 1, London: J. Bell, page 46