brandy

Etymology

It is a clipping from English brandy wine,^[2][3][4][5] earlier brandwine and brandewine,^[6][7][8] which is from Dutch brandewijn (“burnt wine”),^[2][3][9][7] that is, distilled wine.^[9][6] The Dutch word, earlier Middle Dutch brantwijn,^[2][6] is formed from branden (“to burn, distil”) and wijn (“wine”);^[2][10][8] Merriam-Webster takes the first part as the past participle of bernen (“to burn”).^[6] The verb is from the same Germanic base as English burn,^[2][6] and Ayto notes that it was formed from brand (“fire”), cognate with English brand.^[7] Cognates are German Branntwein, Middle High German brantwein and Middle Low German brannewin,^[9][3] and Etymonline and Klein compare the Czech word for brandy, Czech pálenka, named in the same way from a verb meaning to burn.^[3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A strong spirit distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice: 1653, in a pamphlet answering a letter from the King of Scots,^[2] 1657 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[9][3] The fuller brandy wine is recorded from 1618,^[2] and in John Fletcher's The Beggar's Bush in 1622.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Ayto describes how the Dutch word was taken over almost unchanged as brandewine, soon became brandy wine, and by the middle of the 17th century was usually shortened to brandy.^[7][6] The OED notes that the full form stayed in official use, in customs tariffs and acts of parliament, until the end of the 17th century, by then understood as a compound of brandy and wine.^[3][2] Weekley pointed out that whisky, gin and rum are also shortened forms.^[12] The word was used in the names of mixed drinks such as brandy and water from 1699,^[2] for a glass of brandy from 1838,^[2] and figuratively from 1836.^[2] The verb, to mix or flavour with brandy, is dated 1772 by Merriam-Webster^[4] and 1803, in a letter of Thomas Jefferson, by the OED.^[2] In Anglo-Indian English brandy-pawnee was brandy and water, from Hindi pānī, water.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1618 – brandy wine.^[2]
• 1653 – brandy, the spirit.^[2]
• 1699 – brandy and water and other mixed drinks.^[2]
• 1772 – verb, to flavour or treat with brandy.^[4]
• 1785 – verb, to brandy it, to drink brandy (obsolete).^[2]
• 1803 – verb, to mix with or soak in brandy.^[2]
• 1836 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1838 – a drink or glass of brandy.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong alcoholic spirit distilled from wine, or from the fermented juice of other fruit: plum brandy.^[5][14][4]
2. A glass or drink of brandy.^[2][13]

Verb

1. To flavour, mix or preserve something with brandy: brandied cherries.^[5][4][2]

Word family

• brandywine
• apple brandy
• brandy mint
• brandy snifter
• peach brandy

Related words

• brand
• burn
• wine

Usage notes

In Norfolk dialect all brandy meant in good order or all right,^[15] and in several dialects brandy-bottle was a name for the yellow water lily.^[15][13] An unrelated obsolete adjective brandy, brindled or streaked, a variant of branded, was used from 1608 to 1826.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)