Aqua vitae

[1] Usage was widespread during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, although its origin is likely much earlier.

This Latin term appears in a wide array of dialectical forms throughout all lands and people conquered by ancient Rome.

The term was used by the 14th-century alchemist John of Rupescissa, who believed the then newly discovered substance of ethanol to be an imperishable and life-giving "fifth essence" or quintessence, and who extensively studied its medical properties.

[3] Aqua vitae was often an etymological source of terms applied to important locally produced distilled spirits.

[4] Examples include whisky (from the Gaelic uisce beatha), eau de vie in France, acquavite in Italy, and akvavit in Scandinavia, okowita in Poland, оковита (okovyta) in Ukraine, акавіта (akavita) in Belarus, and яковита (yakovita) in southern Russian dialects.