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→Lambic, Lambiek, Lambik, and Lambick
Concerning the word ''lambic'' itself, it is common to see three separate spellings that vary between locations, brewers, and even beers. The entry for ''lambic'' in the Oxford English Dictionary gives an alternate fourth English spelling as ''lambick'' initially published in the first edition of The Century Dictionary in New York between 1889-1891 and defined as “a kind of strong beer made in Belgium by the process called the self-fermentation of worts.” This conventional English spelling of the French term ''lambic'' has largely been dropped over time in favor of the French spelling among English Speakers. Past this, the etymological history of ''lambic'' is partly speculative, partly anecdotal, and partly verifiable.
Guinard (1990) writes that “according to a writer from the Tirailleur newspaper in 1893, the term lambic has its origin in the peasants’ belief that lambic, being very harsh to the palate, was actually a distilled beverage”<ref name="Guinard">Jean-Xavier Guinard, [[Books#Classic Beer Styles: Lambic|Classic Beer Styles: Lambic]], 1990</ref>. This is not completely out of the realm of possibility, as the traditional stills of the era were alembic-style stills, and ale has always historically been associated with the peasantry in Europe. The French spelling of alembic, ''alambic'' is still closely associated with the brandy industry today as the specific still used for cognac and Armagnac production. An alembic is actually the lid that covers the flask-apparatus of the still, but is often used to refer to the entire distilling apparatus. <<'''insert alembic picture here>>'''
Belgian historian Godefroi Kurth has also noted, according to Guinard (1990), that the term alambic was also the old name for the mashing vessel used to brew lambic beer. Mashtuns of the time can be similar in shape and construction to the alembic stills of the day. The word alembic itself derives from both Arabic, ''al-anbīq'', and Greek, ''ambyx'', potentially placing the birthplace of lambic vocabulary very far from its ancestral home in the [[Main_Page#Pajottenland|Pajottenland]]. Given the proliferation of Latin as a language of both study and commerce throughout the post-Greek world, it is also interesting to note that the Latin infinitive verb