英語中有許多表示酒的單詞,如alcohol,booze,drink,liquor都可以泛指酒類.除此之外,spirits也可以指烈性酒.Spirit有"精神,心靈,靈魂"的意思,那么酒精和靈魂有什么關(guān)系?為什么烈性酒可以用spirits表示?

According to VinePair, one theory suggests that we call some liquors spirits because of alcohol’s association with one spirit in particular: the Holy Spirit, which, together with God and Jesus, forms the Holy Trinity in most Christian denominations. This theory is based primarily on certain places in the Bible where the effects of the Holy Spirit are juxtaposed with alcohol’s effects. In the New Testament, for example, when Jesus’s disciples are “filled with the Holy Spirit” during Pentecost and begin to speak in other languages, some bystanders jokingly write off their strange behavior as a symptom of having drunk too much wine.
據(jù)VinePair網(wǎng)站稱，一種理論認(rèn)為，某些酒被稱為“spirits”，是因?yàn)榫凭c圣靈有特殊的關(guān)聯(lián)，圣靈與上帝和耶穌一起構(gòu)成了大多數(shù)基督教教派的三位一體。這種說法主要基于《圣經(jīng)》，在某些篇章中圣靈的作用與酒精相同。例如，在《新約》中，當(dāng)耶穌的門徒在五旬節(jié)期間“被圣靈充滿”并開始說其他語言時(shí)，一些旁觀者會(huì)戲稱他們的奇怪行為是喝多了的表現(xiàn)。

A more likely explanation has to do with the etymology of the word alcohol, which is thought to have come from either of two old Arabic words. As Scientific American reports, the first option is al-ghawl, which literally means spirit and is even mentioned in the Qur’an as a spirit or demon that imbues wine with its intoxicating effects.
更有可能的一種解釋是，與單詞alcohol（酒精）的詞源有關(guān)，人們認(rèn)為alcohol源自兩個(gè)古老的阿拉伯單詞中的任一個(gè)。據(jù)《科學(xué)美國(guó)人》報(bào)道，第一種可能是al-ghawl，其字面意思是靈魂（spirit），《古蘭經(jīng)》中提到，al-ghawl是一種鬼魂或惡魔，能使葡萄酒產(chǎn)生醉人的效果。

Though that origin story seems logical enough, the second option, al-koh’l, is pretty plausible, too. The word al-koh’l described an eyeliner made from a black powdery mineral called stibnite. Since the method of transforming stibnite into makeup was similar to how people distilled liquids, al-koh’l may have gotten co-opted to mean “anything that was distilled.” When alcohol showed up in English during the 16th century, it was used to describe the spirit or essence distilled from some other substance, as in “alcohol of wine.” All things considered, it’s not surprising that people eventually just started calling those spirits “spirits.”
雖然上述起源故事似乎很合乎邏輯，不過，第二種可能也相當(dāng)合理，即spirits與al－koh‘l的詞源相關(guān)。Al-koh'l指一種眼線筆，它是由一種被稱為輝銻礦的黑色粉狀礦物制成的。由于將輝銻礦轉(zhuǎn)化為化妝品的方法類似于人們蒸餾液體的方法，因此al-koh'l可以指“任何蒸餾過的東西”。16世紀(jì)，當(dāng) alcohol 在英語中出現(xiàn)時(shí)，這個(gè)詞被用來描述從其他物質(zhì)中蒸餾出的精髓（spirit）或精華，如“alcohol of wine（葡萄酒的精華）”。綜上所述，人們最終將這些酒稱為“spirits”也就沒什么奇怪的了。

說到烈性酒，就不得不提到中國(guó)的白酒。它與白蘭地、威士忌、伏特加、朗姆酒和金酒一起并稱為世界六大蒸餾酒。那么中國(guó)白酒的英文該如何翻譯呢？

多年來，中國(guó)白酒缺乏一個(gè)官方的準(zhǔn)確的英文名稱，比如Chinese spirits（中國(guó)白酒）, Chinese distilled spirits（中國(guó)蒸餾酒）, Chinese liquor（中國(guó)烈酒）等都稱為“中國(guó)白酒”。

經(jīng)與海關(guān)總署稅收征管局（京津）多次溝通，中國(guó)酒業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)于2020年4月25日正式向海關(guān)總署提出申請(qǐng)，建議將海關(guān)商品名錄中中國(guó)白酒的英文名字由原來的“Chinese distilled spirits”更改為“Chinese Baijiu”。2021年1月11日，這一翻譯方式正式官宣。

除了白酒，其他種類的酒用英文怎么說呢？一起來看《公共服務(wù)領(lǐng)域英文譯寫規(guī)范》給出的翻譯吧：

米酒 Rice Wine
黃酒 Yellow Rice Wine或Shaoxing Wine
洋酒 Imported Wines and Liquors
紅葡萄酒 Red Wine
白葡萄酒 White Wine
啤酒 Beer
果酒 Fruit Wine
開胃酒 Aperitifs

來源：Mental floss，中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)雙語新聞
編輯：董靜，陳月華