Saké
/ˈsɑː.keɪ/noun
A Japanese alcoholic beverage brewed from fermented rice, water, yeast, and koji mold.
Did you know?Saké is not technically a wine or a distilled spirit: it is brewed, and koji mold helps convert rice starch into fermentable sugar.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Japonic
Proto-Japonic
*sake
“Reconstructed ancestral form associated with alcoholic drink; the deeper origin is uncertain”
8th Century
Old Japanese
さけ (sake)
“Alcoholic drink or liquor”
8th Century
Classical Japanese
酒 (sake)
“Alcohol; alcoholic beverage, written with the Chinese character for wine or liquor”
16th Century
Portuguese
sacqué
“Japanese alcoholic drink, recorded by Portuguese visitors to Japan”
19th Century
English
sake
“The Japanese fermented-rice beverage”
Modern English
English
saké
“A Western spelling emphasizing the final vowel and distinguishing the drink from the unrelated English word “sake””