whisky

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English whisk Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English whisky From whisk + -y.

1. Alternative form of whiskey (“a light gig or carriage”).

   “1768, Ignatius Sancho, letter to Mr. M—, in Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, London: J. Nichols, 3rd edition, 1784, pp. 7-8, Look into old age, you will see avarice joined to poverty—letchery, gout, impotency, like three monkeys, or London bucks, in a one-horse whisky, driving to the Devil.”

   “At the appointed time Mr. Kettering’s one-horse chaise, or rather whisky, drove up to the door; for, as it was principally intended for him to visit his patients, when disinclined to mount his horse, it was built in the lightest manner, and without a head, that it might move with the greater expedition.”