Wine

[Ron butters]

And then there is saki, which is 'rice wine' right? Always tasted more like vodka to me, which could perhaps be called "potato wine"? Isn't the crucial difference between wine and spirits the distillation process that spirits undergo?

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 9, 2011, at 4:42 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM> wrote:

> The use of the word "wine" for alcoholic beverages made in China is common. Right now, I have an article that says:
>
> "It questioned whether wine-making or animal husbandry had affected grain consumption, or if too many people had given up farming to engage in commercial activities." ("Agricultural intensification and marketing agrarianism in the Han dynasty" by Hsü Cho-yun in _Ancient China: studies in early civilization_, p. 255, 1978)
>
> Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alcoholic_beverages):
>
> -----
> Jiu (Chinese: 酒; pinyin: jiǔ) is the Chinese word that refers to all alcoholic beverages. This word has often been mistranslated into English as "wine"; the meaning is closer to "alcoholic beverage" or "liquor"….
>
> Unlike Western alcoholic beverages which are either fermented from fruit juices that already contain simple sugars (wine), or malted grains with sugar converted from starch using the grain's own enzymes (beer), Chinese jiu (and many other East Asian alcoholic beverages) are fermented from sugars converted from grain starch using enzymes from certain mold strains.
> -----
>
> The OED has a general definition for wine: "In wider use, usually with qualifying word: A fermented liquor made from the juice of other fruits, or from grain, flowers, the sap of various trees (e.g. birch and palm), etc.: sometimes called _made wine_"
>
> Given the wide use of "wine" to refer to Chinese alcohol and the significant difference in preparation that Wikipedia notes, a separate entry is perhaps deserved. At the least, if this use of wine is to be left under this definition, the expression "usually with qualifying word" should perhaps be dropped as "wine" is frequently unqualified.
>
> Also, the citations for this definition stop at 1888, so some updated citations are needed.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org