Why Are Some Liquors Called 'Spirits'?

Spirits 为什么有“烈酒”的意思？

According to VinePair, one theory suggests that we call some liquors spirits because of alcohol’s association with one spirit in particular: the Holy Spirit, which, together with God and Jesus, forms the Holy Trinity in most Christian denominations. This theory is based primarily on certain places in the Bible where the effects of the Holy Spirit are juxtaposed with alcohol’s effects. In the New Testament, for example, when Jesus’s disciples are “filled with the Holy Spirit” during Pentecost and begin to speak in other languages, some bystanders jokingly write off their strange behavior as a symptom of having drunk too much wine.

据VinePair网站称，一种理论认为，某些酒被称为“spirits”，是因为酒精与圣灵有特殊的关联，圣灵与上帝和耶稣一起构成了大多数基督教教派的三位一体。这种说法主要基于《圣经》，在某些篇章中圣灵的作用与酒精相同。例如，在《新约》中，当耶稣的门徒在五旬节期间“被圣灵充满”并开始说其他语言时，一些旁观者会戏称他们的奇怪行为是喝多了的表现。

A more likely explanation has to do with the etymology of the word alcohol, which is thought to have come from either of two old Arabic words. As Scientific American reports, the first option is al-ghawl, which literally means spirit and is even mentioned in the Qur’an as a spirit or demon that imbues wine with its intoxicating effects.

更有可能的一种解释是，与单词alcohol（酒精）的词源有关，人们认为alcohol源自两个古老的阿拉伯单词中的任一个。据《科学美国人》报道，第一种可能是al-ghawl，其字面意思是灵魂（spirit），《古兰经》中提到，al-ghawl是一种鬼魂或恶魔，能使葡萄酒产生醉人的效果。

Though that origin story seems logical enough, the second option, al-koh’l, is pretty plausible, too. The word al-koh’l described an eyeliner made from a black powdery mineral called stibnite. Since the method of transforming stibnite into makeup was similar to how people distilled liquids, al-koh’l may have gotten co-opted to mean “anything that was distilled.” When alcohol showed up in English during the 16th century, it was used to describe the spirit or essence distilled from some other substance, as in “alcohol of wine.” All things considered, it’s not surprising that people eventually just started calling those spirits “spirits.”

虽然上述起源故事似乎很合乎逻辑，不过，第二种可能也相当合理，即spirits与al－koh‘l的词源相关。Al-koh'l指一种眼线笔，它是由一种被称为辉锑矿的黑色粉状矿物制成的。由于将辉锑矿转化为化妆品的方法类似于人们蒸馏液体的方法，因此al-koh'l可以指“任何蒸馏过的东西”。16世纪，当 alcohol 在英语中出现时，这个词被用来描述从其他物质中蒸馏出的精髓（spirit）或精华，如“alcohol of wine（葡萄酒的精华）”。综上所述，人们最终将这些酒称为“spirits”也就没什么奇怪的了。

Rice Wine

米酒

Yellow Rice Wine或Shaoxing Wine

黄酒

Imported Wines and Liquors

洋酒

Red Wine

红葡萄酒

White Wine

白葡萄酒

Beer

啤酒

Fruit Wine

果酒

Aperitifs

开胃酒