Jenever

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A strong alcoholic drink primarily flavored with juniper, which has its origins in the Netherlands and is enjoyed in various forms
2. This distilled spirit, known for its distinctive botanical profile, mostly features juniper and is traditionally associated with Dutch and Belgian heritage
3. A traditional spirit originating from the Netherlands and Belgium, flavored mainly with juniper berries and consumed as a strong alcoholic beverage

Etymology: Jenever is a juniper spirit, and its name is simply the Dutch word for juniper. The Dutch took it from Old French "genevre", which descended from a Vulgar Latin form "ziniperus", itself a variant of the classical Latin "iūniperus". So the drink is named after the berry that flavours it, a naming pattern that has carried through to English gin, which is a shortened form of the same plant name. The word reached Dutch and the drink's name by a route that ran through France, and the Latin plant name it began with has been reshaped at every stage of the journey. Each borrowing altered the sounds of the original word, so the Dutch form looks quite different from the Latin one even though the plant it names has not changed.