Etymology Dictionary

RATAFIA,  the name of a liquor.  (F.,—Malay.)   'Ratafiaz, a delicious liquor made of apricocks, cherries, or other fruit, with their kernels bruised and steeped in brandy;' Phillips, ed. 1710.—F. ratafia, the same; cf. F. tafia, rum-arrack.   The right etymology is clearly that pointed out in Mahn's Webster.—Malay araq, 'arrack, a distilled spirit,' Marsden's Dict., p. 5; and táfía, 'a spirit distilled from molasses, (the French name for rum); araq bram táfía, three kinds of spirit, enumerated in an old Malayan writing,' id. p. 65.   Again, at p. 39 of the same we find araq, bram, táfía, arrack, bram, and rum.   Omitting bram, we have araq táfía, whence ratafia is an easy corruption, esp. when it is remembered that araq is also called raq, in Spanish raque, or in English rack; see Rack (5).   β. The use of both words together is explicable from the consideration that araq is a very general term, and is not a true Malay word, being borrowed from Arabic; see Arrack.   Thus ratafia means 'the rack (spirit) called tafia.   See also Rum, sb.