Reply #16: Because it's Scotch. [View All]

[Spider Jerusalem]

Not Irish or bourbon.

From the OED:

whisky, whiskey, n¹

("hwIskI) Also 8 -kie, -kee. (Short for whiskybae, etc. (Gael. uisgebeatha lit. 'water of life'), though this is not actually evidenced so early (but Ramsay has usque for usquebaugh, q.v., in 1728). In modern trade usage, Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey are thus distinguished in spelling; whisky is the usual spelling in Britain and whiskey that in the U.S.)

a. A spirituous liquor distilled originally in Ireland and Scotland, and in the British Isles still chiefly, from malted barley (with or without unmalted barley or other cereals), in U.S. chiefly from maize or rye. With a and pl., a drink of whisky.