October 03, 2025

Word Origins | Varil, Fıçı


Wooden barrels, or casks, are hollow cylindrical containers with bulging centers that are longer than they are wide. Traditionally, they are constructed from wooden slats and connected by wooden or metal hoops.

In modern times, the wood used in wine barrels comes from three different types of oak:
French Common Oak
Irish Oak
American White Oak

Typical standard sizes of wooden wine barrels are as follows:

Bordeaux type – 225 liters
Bordeaux type – 228 liters
Cognac type – 300 liters
Gorda (700 liters/184.9 gallons)
Madeira Drum (650 liters/171.7 gallons)
Scaffold Pipe (650 liters/171.7 gallons)
Machine Puncheon (500 liters/132 gallons)
Sherry Butt (500 liters/132 gallons)
Sherry Puncheon (500 liters/132 gallons)
Barrique (300 liters/79.2 gallons)
Hogshead (225 liters/59.4 gallons)
American Standard Barrel (200 liters/53 gallons)
Quarter Barrel (50 liters/13 gallons)
Blood Tub (40 liters/10.5 gallons)

MORE on oak [1]

Mavi Boncuk |

Varil: barrel EN[2]

i. (< Fr. baril)

1. Çoğunlukla sıvı koymaya mahsus, silindir biçiminde, ekseriya altı üstü kapalı fıçı: … sandallarını ve varillerini denize dökerek kıyıya çıkabilmişlerdir (Kâtip Çelebi’den Seç.).

2. 158,8l litrelik petrol ölçü birimi: OPEC Ekim ayında 2011 küresel petrol talebi tahminini üst üste dördüncü ay, bu kez 180 bin varil indirerek günde 87,8 milyona çekti (Forbes).

from VEN baríl [İt barile] sıvılar için küçük fıçı << OLat barriclus [küç.] a.a. < OLat *barrica fıçı → barikat

Oldest source

varel [ Filippo Argenti, Regola del Parlare Turco (1533) ]

varel/varela [ Seydi Ali Reis, Mirat-ül Memalik (1557) ]

Venedikçe baríl "sıvılar için küçük fıçı" sözcüğünden alıntıdır. Venedikçe sözcük Geç Latince aynı anlama gelen barriclus sözcüğünden evrilmiştir. Bu sözcük Geç Latince yazılı örneği bulunmayan *barrica "fıçı" sözcüğünün küçültme halisidir.

Türkçede eskiden kullanılan varela biçimi standart İtalyancadan alınmıştır. İngilizce barrel (aynı anlamda) bir Latin dilinden alınmıştır.

Fıçı: i. (< fuçı < fuçi < from GR. boutsi) Uzunluğuna kesilmiş ensiz tahtaların çemberlerle tutturulması sûretiyle yapılmış, altı üstü aynı genişlikte, karın kısmı şişkin büyük kap: “Yağ fıçısı.” “Şarap fıçısı.” İki yâhut üç sıra olarak birbiri üzerine dizilmiş beşer yüz kiloluk fıçılara iyice bakınız (Ahmed Midhat Efendi). Ağaçsız bir bahçe, bahçenin nihâyetinde ayakyolu, gāyet kocaman abdest fıçısı (Ömer Seyfeddin).

Fıçı fıçı: (Su ve sulu şeyler için) Çok, pek çok, fıçılar dolusu: Kandil geceleri ölmüşlerinin rûhu için fıçı fıçı sular açtırıp sebil eden müslümanlar… (Yusuf Z. Ortaç). Fıçı gibi: Kısa boylu ve çok şişman (kimse), küp gibi.

[1] Oak has remained the best wood for barrel making for thousands of years. It is considered the best wood for aging whiskey because it contains a false tannin called gallic acid and contains many compounds that add spice to the spirit. Oak also provides the best wine barrel wood because of its excellent relationship with grapes and how well it ages and develops flavors.

American White Oak

What is a Barrel? What are the Varieties? American white oak is the most assertive force in the world of whiskey barrel wood. Bourbon should be aged in newly charred American white oak barrels, and later, used bourbon barrels are used for the aging of many whiskeys, scotch, and other spirits. American oak barrels impart soft notes of vanilla, caramel, and coconut, gently influencing the flavor. American white oak grows in the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Because it grows moderately fast for an oak tree and its wood is highly compressed, it is less expensive to build barrels than European white oak.

Bourbon barrels are made from Quercus alba, or American white oak, trees that are preferably over 90 years old. Oak barrels used for aging bourbon have bubble-like cellular structures (tyloses) that protrude into the xylem spaces, thus inhibiting water movement. This makes the barrel wood particularly waterproof, even with thinner staves, making it perfect for the mechanized oak bourbon barrel-making process used in the US.

European Oak

Whiskey barrels made from European oak tend to impart spice and vanilla flavors to whiskey during aging. It is a slow-growing oak with a tighter grain. It is also more absorbent than other oaks, allowing the spirits to penetrate more deeply during maturation. European oak adds bitter, spicy, and woody notes to the flavor. European oak grows chastely throughout Europe, including Turkey and Russia. It is less dense and grows slower than American white oak.

Sessile Oak

This species is found in Europe and is not as common as other species. It is also known as Irish oak because it is the national tree of Ireland. Today, Irish whiskey barrel wood is sourced from France for the cognac and wine industries.

Mongolian Oak

In the whiskey world, this species is known as Mizunara or Japanese oak. Tasting notes include vanilla, coconut, spicy rye notes, oriental incense, and sandalwood. Mongolian oak barrels provide the distinctive characteristics associated with Japanese whisky.

[2] Barrel. The word "baril" was known in Venetian Italian. In the 12th century, the word "baril" (=barrel) was used in French. In the second half of the 17th century, the metal tube of a gun (TR Namlu) was also called "baril." The Italian word "barile" refers to the Spanish and Catalan forms "barril."

It is a loanword from the Venetian word baríl, meaning "small barrel for liquids." The Venetian word evolved from the Late Latin word barriclus, meaning the same thing. This word is a diminutive of *barrica, "barrel," for which there is no written precedent in Late Latin. The form varela, formerly used in Turkish, is a loanword from standard Italian. The English word barrel (with the same meaning) is a loanword from a Latin language.

barrel(n.) "cylindrical vessel or cask, generally bulging in the middle and made of wooden staves bound by hoops," c. 1300, from Old French baril "barrel, cask, vat" (12c.), with cognates in all Romance languages (Italian barile, Spanish barril, etc.), but of unknown origin. Also a measure of capacity of varying quantity.

The meaning "metal tube of a gun" is from 1640s. Barrel-roll (n.) in aeronautics is from 1920. To be over a barrel figuratively, "in a helpless or vulnerable condition," is by 1914 and might suggest corporal punishment.

barrel(v.) mid-15c., "put in barrels," from barrel (n.). The meaning "move quickly" is 1930, American English slang, perhaps suggestive of a rolling barrel. Related: Barreled; barreling.

Related entries & more

barrelful(n.) "as much as a barrel will hold," late 14c., from barrel (n.) + -ful.

barrelhouse(n.) "cheap saloon, often with an associated brothel," by 1875, American English, so called in reference to the barrels of beer or booze typically stacked along the wall. See barrel (n.) + house (n.).

Q. What was this place you rented? — A. It was a room adjoining a barrel-house.

Q. What is a barrel house? — A. It is a room where barrels of whisky are tapped, a very inferior kind of whisky, and the whisky is sold by the glassful right out of the barrel. It is a primitive coffee house. [Committee Report of the 43rd Congress, Select Committee on Conditions of the South, 1874-75]

barricade(n.) "hastily made fortification for defense or to obstruct the progress of an enemy," 1640s, from French barricade, from Spanish barricada, literally "made of barrels," from barrica "barrel," from barril (see barrel (n.)). Earlier was barricado (1580s) with false Spanish ending (see -ado). The word's association with revolutions began during the 1588 Huguenot riots in Paris, when large barrels filled with earth and stones were set up in the streets. Related: Barricades.

 


No comments:

Post a Comment