July 19, 2006, 17:08
shufitzNoah
What do these 18 words have in common?
advocate caloric electrician hickory psychology constitutionality presidential flume butternut succotash whisky checkers chore penmanship sectarian skittles slang velveteen
For the answer, enjoy this 5-minute audio clip from
national public radio.
July 19, 2006, 17:41
zmježdRather nice and soundbytish. I liked acknowledgement of the alternate Websterian spellings which didn't catch on:
sley for
sleigh and
tung for
tongue. There wasn't enough time to go into -
ize vs -
ise I suppose, though -
or vs -
our was mentioned by Mr Siegel.
July 20, 2006, 03:02
arnieInteresting that "whisky" is included with that particular spelling. I understood that the usual American spelling was "whiskey". Over here, the spirit distilled in Scotland is spelt without an e, and that made elsewhere, such as Ireland or the US, has the e.
July 20, 2006, 07:30
zmježdWesbter's 1828 dictionary has: "WHISKY, n. A spirit distilled from grain. In the north of England, the name is given to the spirit drawn from barley. In the United States, whisky is generally distilled from wheat, rye or maiz."
The OED1 has a citation from 1715, and gives both spellings: "whisky, whiskey".
The usually etymology has whisk(e)y derived from Gaelic
uisge beatha (into English as
usquebaugh) 'water of life', a calque on Latin
aqua vitae. So, whisky from the first word in the phrase, meaning 'water'. Cf. Russian
vodka 'little water' from
voda 'water'; cognate with English
water, Greek
hydor.
July 20, 2006, 07:38
arnieSo, if the first Webster's gave the spelling as "whisky", I wonder when "whiskey" started?
July 20, 2006, 07:50
zmježdThe 1828 dictionary was Webster's second one. His first (1806, hence 200th anniversary) is full of quirky spellings, too.
July 20, 2006, 08:38
arnieMost of Webster's spellings could be described as "quirky", especially to English eyes!

At a guess, the spelling of "whiskey" came over with the influx of Irish immigrants during and after the Potato Famine of 1845-9.
July 20, 2006, 09:45
Erik JohansenThere's an Irish pub in North Shields which has both "whiskey" and "whisky" produced by Irish distillers on a poster so it seems that they use both, so who knows!