Why is liquor called spirits

Always wondered, why certain Liquors are “spirits”.

Spirit, comes from Latin ‘Spiritus’ which means breath. The meaning later became, the essence or non-physical part.

All alcohols have a fermented compounds but, Spirits are concentrated through distillation. It is what increases the alcohol by volume, by boiling out the Ethyl alcohol (ethanol). Then repeated many times to get the desired result of spirit.

Spirits usually have no added sugar and at least 20% alcohol by volume. This might seem the only link to naming “spirits” but other qualities are present. Some might seem like stretches but do make you wonder.

When mixing alcohol drinks you will see ghostly streams visible even in clear drinks.

Alcohol interestingly, is said to come from Arabic ‘al-kuhl’. The name of a body eating spirit, this is reduced to what one felt from it. A numbing of senses when drank. People are said to get at times be lost to alcohol or become alcoholics. Some describe it as a loss or will or spirit to fight. The use of these terms all revolve around the spiritual context.

We “lift” our spirits by consuming alcohol with friends. We even overdo it and appear to not be our selves. The name could be a warning or sorts. After all one of the dangers is numbing your un-happiness, drinking your troubles. Right?

Since  ‘Al-ghawl’ is the origin of ‘ghoul’ in English, said to be another word for spirit.

Ghoul what today we call a Zombie thanks to Gorge Romero,

In a nut shell;  Zombies are a reanimated slave corpse,

Ghouls, are humans who rob graves and eat human bodies they mixed them, but,

maybe for another time.

Thanks for reading.