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Glite Dictionary
spiritous

spiritous

9.3
A liquid that contains alcohol, like whisky or rum
  • adjective
  • /ˈspɪrɪtəs/
  • Archaic
translation icon : espirituoso
  • Many spiritous beverages were available at the festival, including whiskey and rum.

Examples

  • The bartender served a spiritous cocktail that delighted the guests.

  • He preferred spiritous drinks over non-alcoholic options during the celebration.

  • She's an amphonxious spiritous.

    The Cloth (2012)

Synonyms

alcoholic
vsspiritous
32 3.7

Containing alcohol, for example beer or wine

refers only to liquids that contain alcohol
spirituous
vsspiritous
  • Archaic
1 9.0

Containing alcohol, like whiskey or vodka

applies to any liquid rather than only to drinks

Antonyms

nonalcoholic
5 2.5

A drink or product that does not contain alcohol

How Alcoholic

overproof
  • Specialized
7.0
alcoholic
32 3.7
spiritous
  • Archaic
9.3
near beer
  • Archaic
1 5.1

Surface Forms

spiritous positive

Morphology

spiritous = spirit (transparent) = spirit + ous

The adjective is directly formed from 'spirit' with the productive suffix '-ous' meaning 'full of' or 'having the quality of', yielding 'containing alcohol'.

Etymology

Spiritous comes from spirit, which comes from the old Latin spiritus meaning 'breath' or 'spirit'. People noticed that when they heated wine or other liquids to make strong drinks the strongest part seemed to come off as steam and was called the 'spirit', so spiritous means a liquid 'containing alcohol'.