the.com/spirits
Either the dead, the drunk, or the determined — language never bothered to choose.
means Spirits can mean the souls or ghosts of the dead, a person's mood or vigor, or strong distilled alcohol like whisky and gin.
from All of these flow from the Latin spiritus, meaning 'breath' — from spirare, 'to breathe' — the ancient idea that life, soul, and animating force ride on the breath. As the word traveled through Old French and into English, it branched in several directions at once: the 'breath of life' became the soul that survives death (ghosts and spirits), the inner liveliness of a person (good spirits, high spirits), and — by way of medieval alchemy and distillation — the volatile, vapor-rich essence boiled off a liquid, which is why strong liquor came to be called spirits. The drunk, the dead, and the determined really do share one root: breath.
- distillation
- Spirit means the volatile vapor captured during the boiling
- alchemy
- Alchemists named purified essences after the soul itself
- proof origin
- Sailors tested rum by igniting gunpowder soaked in it
- team spirit
- Same word covers ghosts, gin, and morale alike
- holy ghost
- The Latin spiritus simply meant breath
johnnie walker — scottish whisky brand, world's best-selling scotch with 20% global market share
bacardi — cuban rum company founded 1862, largest privately-held spirits producer globally
smirnoff — vodka brand owned by diageo, best-selling vodka worldwide since the 1950s