Bourbon Meaning
/ˈbɜː(ɹ).bən/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA whiskey distilled in the United States from a mixture of grains in which at least 51% is corn, aged in charred, new oak barrels.
nounA serving of bourbon whiskey.
Sentence Examples
Bourbon is made from corn.
John drinks Scotch and Mary bourbon.
Tom pulled a bottle of bourbon out of his desk drawer.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He ordered a glass of aged ____ served with a single ice cube at the bar.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ is a type of American whiskey that is primarily made from corn.
Word Origin & History
From bourbon whiskey, originally Bourbon whiskey, of disputed provenance. Generally taken to derive from Bourbon County, Kentucky, but possibly also from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. Both derive from the French Bourbon dynasty, named for the lordship of French Bourbon l'Archambault. The town's name derives from Borvo, a local Celtic deity associated with hot springs, from Proto-Celtic *borvo (“froth, foam”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to be hot, boil”). See also Borvo.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It concerns the gnomelike quality of the average American at a party. I have been to many parties where staid American business men have been transformed by a few ryes or bourbons into unpredictable gremlins out for adventure."
— 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 17:
"It was "a fundamental impossibility" for a black person to be a Bourbon, white-supremacist Democrat, but a black individual could very well become a "progressive Democrat.""
— 1988, Herbert Shapiro, White Violence and Black Response: From Reconstruction to Montgomery, →ISBN:
"For the Bourbon White elite and their allies, the intimidation of the Black laborers and farmers was necessary to prevent their political involvement and to maintain their subjugated location in the economy."
— 2014, Akinyele Omowale Umoja, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement, →ISBN:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He ordered a glass of aged ____ served with a single ice cube at the bar.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ is a type of American whiskey that is primarily made from corn.