aqua vitae

• aqua vitæ

From Middle English aqua vite, from Latin aqua vītae, from aqua (“water”) and vītae (“of life”), hence “water of life”.

• IPA^(key): /ˌeɪkwə ˈvaɪti/, /ˌækwə ˈviːteɪ/

aqua vitae (countable and uncountable, plural aquae vitae)

1. (alchemy) An aqueous solution of alcohol typically prepared by distilling wine.
2. (chemistry, archaic) A concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol.
3. (beverages, archaic) French brandy or cognac.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare,  […] [T]he Merrie Wiues of Windsor. […] (First Quarto), London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Arthur Ihonson, […], published 1602, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Ile ſooner truſt an Iriſhman vvith my / Aquauita bottle, Sir Hu[gh Evans] our parſon vvith my cheeſe, / A theefe to vvalk my ambling gelding, thẽ my vvife / VVith her ſelfe; […]

Literally “water of life”, from aqua (“water”) and vītae (“of life”), the genitive singular of vīta (“life”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.kʷa ˈu̯iː.tae̯/, [ˈäkʷä ˈu̯iːt̪äe̯]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.kwa ˈvi.te/, [ˈäːkwä ˈviːt̪e]

aqua vītae f sg (genitive aquae vītae); first declension

1. distilled alcohol; spirits

   Synonym: spiritus vini 'spirit of wine'

First-declension noun with an indeclinable portion, singular only.

• aqua in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)