arrack: [17] Arrack is an Asian alcoholic drink distilled from rice or molasses. The word comes ultimately from Arabic ‘araq ‘sweat, juice, liquor’, which was borrowed in a variety of forms into several Asiatic languages. The immediate source of English arrack seems to have been an Indian language.
arrack (n.)
c. 1600, probably picked up in India, ultimately from Arabic araq, literally "sweat, juice;" used of native liquors in Eastern countries, especially those distilled from fermented sap of coconut palm, sometimes from rice or molasses.
