[sliv-uh-vits, -wits, shliv-] 
| a dry, usually colorless, slightly bitter plum brandy from E Europe. |
[sliv-uh-vits] .
| sliv·o·vitz (slĭv'ə-vĭts) n. A dry colorless plum brandy. [Serbo-Croatian šljivovica, from šljiva, plum; see sleiə- in Indo-European roots.] Word History: Though colorless, slivovitz is a brandy or schnapps made from bluish plums. The Slavic word for plum is sliva, which is related to Latin līvidus, "bluish, bruise-colored," from which we get livid, a word synonomous with our black-and-blue when used to describe the discoloration caused by a bruise. The Indo-European root *sleiə-, "bluish," from which the Slavic and the Latin words are descended, has another descendant in English associated with alcohol, sloe, the name of a small sour plum of a dark purplish color. Many who have never seen this type of plum have tasted it in sloe gin, which is flavored with sloes. |