Aguardiente

Aguardiente (, Basque: pattar, Catalan: aiguardent, Galician: augardente, Portuguese: aguardente ) are generic terms for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume. The terms mean "fiery water" or "burning water"; a similar English-based term is the slang "firewater". Both aguardiente and brandy—from the Dutch expression for "burnt (i.e., distilled) wine"—originated as terms for distilled spirits using whatever ingredients were available locally.

The word is a compound word that combines the words in Latin-based languages for "water" (agua in Spanish; aigua in Catalan; água in Portuguese; auga in Galician) and "fiery" (ardiente in Spanish; ardent in Catalan; ardente in Portuguese and Galician).