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Uisge beatha
Uisge beatha (later usquebaugh) is Gaelic for
"water of life", which over time has come to mean whisky.
The distilled spirit was originally known by its Latin name aqua
vitae (in French eau de vie).
No one knows precisely when the art of distilling
came to Scotland. Some believe it was with the early Christian
missionaries from Ireland, others that the migrating Celts brought
it with them to Europe from their original homelands in the East.
It seems certain that Druid priests practised some form of distilling,
for medicinal purposes if nothing else. In any event, the Highland
uisge (pronounced "uish-gi") was gradually absorbed
into the English language as "whisky".
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