brando

Burnt wine, and the burning is literal. Dutch distillers called the product brandewijn, burnt wine, because distilling meant applying fire to wine and drawing off what rose. English shortened the compound from the back and kept brandy; Esperanto shortened it from the front and kept brando. So the root Esperanto ended up with is the burning, not the wine, which is why the word covers spirits generally rather than only the grape kind. The Germanic root behind it is the same one in English brand and burn.

Scope, and the neutral register. Brando is any strong distilled drink: brandy in the narrow sense, but also the general class, frukta brando fruit spirit, vinbrando grape brandy, grenbrando corn spirit. Where a specific drink has its own international name Esperanto uses it: viskio, vodko, ĝino, rumo. There is no disapproval built into the word, and none built into alkoholo either, which is the chemical and the category. Brandujo is a decanter, brandfarejo a distillery, brandisto a distiller or a spirits merchant.

Strength, measured. Brando sits at the top of a ladder Esperanto states plainly: biero beer, vino wine, likvoro a sweetened liqueur, brando the distilled spirit. Forta trinkaĵo is the ordinary phrase for hard drink, alkoholaĵo an alcoholic drink of any kind, and senalkohola alcohol-free. You drink glason da brando, using da for a measured quantity rather than de, which is the one grammatical thing this word will test you on.