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prettygoodwordsake - n., a Japanese liquor made from fermented rice.
The sake with two syllables, not one (which is from Old English roots). In Japanese, sake (酒) means alcoholic drink -- this specific drink is nihonshu, literally Japanese alcoholic drink. The process is closer to brewing than wine-making -- the rice starch has to be broken down into sugars before fermentation, much as in beermaking -- so calling it a rice wine seems off. Wikipedia has an extensive article.
Interestingly, the first recorded use of sake in English is from the 1680s, when Japan was largely closed off from the West. I suspect diffusion through those few Dutch traders allowed to visit Nagasaki.
And that wraps up a week of altered loan words. Back next week with the usual mix.
---L.
The sake with two syllables, not one (which is from Old English roots). In Japanese, sake (酒) means alcoholic drink -- this specific drink is nihonshu, literally Japanese alcoholic drink. The process is closer to brewing than wine-making -- the rice starch has to be broken down into sugars before fermentation, much as in beermaking -- so calling it a rice wine seems off. Wikipedia has an extensive article.
Interestingly, the first recorded use of sake in English is from the 1680s, when Japan was largely closed off from the West. I suspect diffusion through those few Dutch traders allowed to visit Nagasaki.
And that wraps up a week of altered loan words. Back next week with the usual mix.
---L.
