Arrack
/ˈær.æk/noun
A distilled alcoholic spirit made in parts of South and Southeast Asia, often from sugarcane, rice, or palm sap.
Did you know?Arrack comes through Arabic and Persian from a word for a bodily fluid or distillate, a reminder that early alcohol vocabulary often treated spirits as something literally “drawn off” or extracted.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Arabic
Arabic
ʿaraq
“sweat; distillate, especially a spirituous distillation”
Medieval Persian
Persian
araq
“distilled spirit; sweat”
16th Century
Dutch
arak
“a distilled spirit imported from Asia and the Middle East”
17th Century
English
arrack
“a strong distilled liquor from the East Indies and nearby regions”
Modern English
English
arrack
“a distilled alcoholic spirit from South and Southeast Asia”