WHISKY OR WHISKEY?

11 Jun 2014 By Xin Hui Helder-Eng

If you can’t read this, you might have had one too many glass of whisky… or is it whiskey? ‘e’ or no ‘e’, I need to pee. Hic. Or mayhaps you’ve had just enough to start writing poetry; prose that unravels the mysteries of etymology.

Because we have all done it before. Wonder if whisky is spelled with an “e”. So here’s some things you ought to know.

Whiskey and whisky, the superfluous “e” is anything but, and though both are pronounced the same (hwis-kee) each spelling denotes a different product. The Scotch and Canadians produce whisky, while the Irish and Americans produce whiskey. While “whisky” was the original spelling – accurately, the original bastardization of the Gaelic word uisce beatha meaning “water of life” – American and Irish distillers adopted “whiskey,” with the extra “e”, in the late 1800′s to signify a level of quality.

So what’s the solution, you ask? We found you a quick fix:

By TheKitchn

Whiskey/whisky nmemonics:
Here’s a quick way to remember how some of the world’s biggest producers spell their products:

Countries that have E’s in their names (UnitEd StatEs and IrEland) tend to spell it whiskEy (plural whiskeys)

Countries without E’s in their names (Canada, Scotland, and Japan) spell it whisky (plural whiskies)

Though our favourite is this poem by Stanley Bruce: