In early twentieth-century Britain, screech referred to an especially harsh whiskey. As one might expect, it was the harshness of screech, or rather the vocalic effect provoked by swallowing it, that gave the liquor its name, but only indirectly: in Scotland, the same whiskey was called screigh, meaning to screech, which was translated directly when the word entered standard English. In Canada, the word screech denotes a different sort of alcohol: in Newfoundland, it’s a strong rum, while in Western Canada it’s a swill made by steeping water in an old distillery barrel, in order to leech out the alcoholic dregs. This latter concoction has also been known as bull since the early nineteenth century.