The Collaborative International Dictionary
Aguardiente \A`guar*di*en"te\, n. [Sp., contr. of agua ardiente burning water (L. aqua water + ardens burning).]
A inferior brandy of Spain and Portugal.
A strong alcoholic drink, especially pulque. [Mexico and Spanish America.]
Wiktionary
n. 1 An inferior brandy made in Spain and Portugal. 2 A strong alcoholic drink, especially pulque, found in Central and South America as well as the southwestern United States.
Wikipedia
Aguardiente (, , , , ) is a generic term for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume. The word is a compound of the Romance languages' words for "water" (agua in Spanish; aigua in Catalan; água in Portuguese; auga in Galician) and "fiery" (ardiente in Spanish; ardent in Catalan; ardente in Portuguese and Galician), similarly to the English term "firewater". Both aguardiente and brandy—from the Dutch expression for "burnt (i.e., distilled) wine"—originated as terms for distilled spirits using whatever ingredients were available locally.
Usage examples of "aguardiente".
Captain Bunker succumbed early to his potations of fiery aguardiente, and was put to bed in the room of the Commander, to whom he had sworn eternal friendship and alliance.
Seated before a rude table, sipping aguardiente, was his countryman Winslow and two traders of the pueblo.
I really cannot undertake to look after his morals at the station, and keep him from drinking aguardiente with suspicious characters at the bar.
Ha concluido un par de aguardientes y piensa pedir otro más, acaso porque no le queda un centavo.
It is further alleged that under the malign influence of Peleg and several glasses of aguardiente, the Commander lost some what of his decorum, and behaved in a manner unseemly for one in his position, reciting high flown Spanish poetry, and even piping in a thin, high voice, divers madrigals and heathen canzonets of an amorous complexion.
I ran and got a blanket from my room, and half a case bottle of aguardiente, wrapping them together.