brandy

UK/ˈbɹændi/US/ˈbɹændi/

nounB1+Very common — you will meet it every day · #2,281 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: brandies

Brandy is a strong spirit distilled from wine. A glass of brandy, brandy butter, cooking brandy.

Cognac and armagnac are brandies from named French regions, and calvados is made from apples rather than grapes. It was traditionally given for shock, which does more harm than good. The name is the best part: it is short for brandywine, from the Dutch for burnt wine, since distilling was called burning.

Definitions of brandy

1nounbrandyA strong spirit distilled from wine.B1+
“The Christmas pudding was covered in brandy and set on fire at the table.”

brandy is a spirit.

Where it comes from

A shortening of brandywine, from Dutch brandewijn, burnt wine. Distilling was called burning.

Dutch
brandewijn — burnt wine
English, today
brandy

Clipping of brandywine. Shortened form of brandywine, from Dutch brandewijn (“burnt wine”). Compare German Brantewein, Branntwein, Danish brændevin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

brandy in the wild

Unlike wine brandy, most pomace brandies are neither aged nor coloured.
Pomace brandy
Armagnac is a brandy produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France.
Armagnac
Because the overall volume of production is far smaller than Cognac production, the brandy is less known outside Europe.
Armagnac
Chacha is a Georgian pomace brandy, clear and strong, which is sometimes called "wine vodka", "grape vodka", or "Georgian vodka/grappa".
Chacha (brandy)
Applejack is a type of apple brandy traditionally associated with the American colonial era and is generally considered to be one of the United States' "original" spirits.
Applejack (drink)

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary