Liquor - licker - liqueur

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In academic English, the only spelling for ‘drinks that have alcohol in them’ is liquor. (This spelling also exists in some older descriptions of liquids in chemical and technological fields; see more at liquid - liquor.) In some dialects, and the writing of them in fiction, the word can be represented as licker – which is exactly what it sounds like, to anyone. But in academic British English, a licker can only be ‘one who licks’.

There is a line in 'The Bad Joke Song' (a song by Garrison Keillor in his film The Prairie Home Companion) which includes the improper exchange with a female customer by a former clerk (assistant) in a grocery store containing a pun on these words:
I asked what she came in there for;
She said 'Liquor!' an' I did lick 'er
An' I don't work there any more.

The word liqueur (a French word, pronounced in English with the stress on the second syllable IPA: /lɪ 'kjʊə/ - French pronunciation /li kœʁ/) is reserved for a special group of alcoholic liquors. These are produced from strong spirits flavoured with certain other substances, usually herbs or fruits. They are usually drunk at the end of a meal.

In older English, the word ‘lecherous’ was sometimes written as liquorous or liquorish. See also Liquorice - licorice - licorish - liquorish.