Talk:Eau de vie

Untitled

The proper generic term is Aqua vitae, of which eau de vie is a local variant, as is grappa (omitted). No mention of alchemy? The confusuion with "water of the grape" is unlikely. All very confused. --Wetman 19:33, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I agree.

the Spanish acqua di vitæ (<-- no kind of Spanish!)

the Celtic uisc-lyf (<-- not "Celtic", whatever that is intended to mean here; and -lyf???)

the Irish usquebaugh (<-- not Irish, though clearly an English mangling of uisce beatha)

the Gaelic and Irish uisgæ-beatha (<-- close, but incorrect spelling for both Scottish Gaelic and Irish)

-- Picapica 20:58, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Vodka

This is just the dimunitive of water, no mention of life.

• Fixed. Badagnani 08:48, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Chemical composition

What are the chemicals that persist in the distillate to maintain the flavor elements contained in the original fruits? Badagnani 08:43, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Grappa

The distinction between eau de vie and grappa should be discussed in the article. Badagnani 08:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Page move

Do not move this page to "Eau-de-vie." Dictionary.com gives the following spellings:

eau de vie    /oʊdə ˈvi; Eng. ˌoʊ də ˈvi/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ohduh vee; Eng. oh duh vee] Show IPA Pronunciation French. brandy, esp. a coarser and less purified variety. Origin: lit., water of life; cf. aqua vitae Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

eau de vie (ō' də vē') Pronunciation Key n. pl. eaux de vie (ō', ōz') Colorless brandy distilled from fermented fruit juice.

[French eau-de-vie : eau, water + de, of + vie, life.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

eau de vie

noun strong coarse brandy

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

Eau de vie Eau` de vie"\ [F., water of life; eau (L. aqua) water + de of + vie (L. vita) life.] French name for brandy. Cf. Aqua vit[ae], under Aqua. --Bescherelle.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. Cite This Source

In the future please edit in a careful, considered manner, proposing all page moves at "Discussion" to compare notes and examine sources before moving. Thank you for this consideration.

Badagnani (talk) 23:13, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following:

Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition Aticle 24634

eau de vie

¦ noun (plural eaux de vie pronunciation same) brandy.

Origin from Fr. eau-de-vie, lit. 'water of life'.

Badagnani (talk) 23:19, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

---

On the other hand:

• Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, 1966, see eau-de-vie at page 717.
• The New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd edition, 2005, see eau-de-vie at page 534.
• The Complete Book of Spirits: A Guide to Their History, Production, and Enjoyment, by Anthony Dias Blue (2004), passim.

I see no reason why the French spelling (eau de vie) should be given preference. Please read WP:UE. Wahrmund (talk) 00:04, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The French spelling (as the etymologies in each of the dictionary definitions above present; have you read them?) is eau-de-vie, whereas the English spelling omits the hyphens. Badagnani (talk) 00:27, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Other eau de vie

According to European Union regulations and geographical indicators [1], eau de vie is not stricly a fruit spirit – even though those are the most famous. While there's no legal category such as eau de vie on its own (turns out it's the French equivalent of spirit), there is eau de vie de bière (beer spirit), eau-de-vie de vin (wine spirit; i.e. un-aged brandy), eau-de-vie de marc (pomace brandy), different fruit spirits named eau-de-vie de [fruit's name] and even eau-de-vie de seigle (rye spirit), but, in fact, no fruit spirits with PDO called eau de vie. – Phoney (talk) 13:05, 26 February 2012 (UTC)