Editing Awamori (section)

==Etymology==
The earliest known use of the term {{Nihongo|2=泡盛|3=awamori}} is in a 1671 record of a gift from [[Shō Tei|King Shō Tei]] of the [[Ryukyu Kingdom]] to the fourth ''[[shōgun]]'', [[Tokugawa Ietsuna]]. Awamori was sent as a gift to the [[Shogun|shogunate]] prior to 1671, but it was recorded as [[shōchū]] (焼酒 or 焼酎) in earlier records.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=泡盛とは {{!}} 泡盛基礎知識 {{!}} 泡盛の名前の由来 |url=https://okinawa-awamori.or.jp/awamori/knowledge/name/ |access-date=2022-06-27 |website=琉球泡盛 |language=ja-JP}}</ref>

Several explanations exist for the etymology of the word ''awamori''. The Okinawan historian [[Iha Fuyū]] believed that the name derives from the word for {{Nihongo|[[millet]]|粟|awa}}, compounded with a verb-derived noun meaning {{Nihongo|"heaped amount; serving"|盛り|mori}}. On this theory, the word was recorded incorrectly with the first character as {{Nihongo|"bubble, foam"|泡|awa}} rather than the character for {{Nihongo|millet|粟|awa}}. Millet was a raw material used to make ''awamori'' at the time that the word was first used.<ref name=":0" />
<!-- I thought I'd read recently that some varieties of ''awamori'' are still made from millet today?  Also, different pitch accents: ''awa'' "bubble" has a downstep after the second mora, while ''awa'' "millet" has a downstep after the first mora. -->

Another hypothesis is that the name comes from a method that was used in the past for assessing the quality of distilled liquors. This method was to slowly pour the liquor from a small bowl held in one hand into an empty bowl held in the other hand about one foot below. The desired result was for a large number of small {{nihongo|bubbles |泡|awa}} to {{nihongo|rise and swell|盛|mori}} in the lower bowl as the liquor is poured into it. Longer-lasting bubbles were also seen as desirable.<ref name=":0" /><!-- Curious about this - this is indeed what the source seems to say, however, as alcohol content in a distillate increases, bubbles take less and less time to clear: as such, longer-lasting bubbles indicate a weaker [lower-alcohol] distillate, which is usually not a good thing for a liquor like awamori that is supposed to be strong. -->