aqua vitae , Latin for “water of life,” is (along with aqua ardens, “burning water”) one of the oldest European terms for distilled spirits, its first documented use coming in the 1270s in a series of similar treatises on distillation variously, and loosely, attributed to Taddeo Alderotti (1223–1303) and Teodorico Borgognoni (1205–1298), both physicians practicing in Bologna. It was originally an alchemico-medical term, referring to the magical stimulant, solvent, and preservative properties perceived in spirits. While aqua ardens was the favored term in the Iberian Peninsula and southern Europe, aqua vitae was almost universal in the north, and indeed gives us the Scandinavian word aquavit, the French eau de vie, and the English “whisky” (via the Gaelic uisce beatha). See aquavit; eau-de-vie; and whisky.
Although aqua vitae was originally applied chiefly to spirits distilled from wine, giving rise to many a play on words with aqua vitis, “water of the vine,” the development of grain spirits in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the term extended to them as well. Indeed, it was used indiscriminately for spirit whatever its source. Only with the increased sophistication and diversification of the spirits market in the seventeenth century did it begin to be replaced by individual, base material–specific terms such as “brandy,” “rum,” and “arrack.” In England, where it is first recorded in 1471, aqua vitae remained the legal term for spirits through the eighteenth century.
Forbes, R. J. Short History of the Art of Distillation. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1948.
Wilson, C. Anne. Water of Life. Totnes, UK: Prospect Books, 2006.
By: David Wondrich