title_body: Can a liquor be both a vodka and whisky? What's the difference?
upvoted_answer: Can a liquor be both a vodka and whisky? What's the difference?
  The short answer is yes.
  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about what constitutes a liquor.
  
  Liquor (also hard liquor, hard alcohol, distilled alcohol, fire water, or spirit water) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, or vegetables that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. The distillation process purifies the liquid and removes diluting components like water, for the purpose of increasing its proportion of alcohol content (commonly expressed as alcohol by volume, ABV).1 As liquors contain significantly more alcohol than other alcoholic drinks, they are considered &quot;harder&quot; – in North America, the term hard liquor is used to distinguish distilled alcoholic drinks from non-distilled ones, whereas the term spirits is used in the UK. Brandy is a liquor produced by the distillation of wine, and has an ABV of over 35%. Other examples of liquors include vodka, baijiu, shōchū, soju, gin, rum, tequila, mezcal, and whisky. (Also see list of alcoholic drinks, and liquors by national origin.)
  The term does not include alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, mead, sake, huangjiu or cider, as they are fermented, not distilled. These all have a relatively low alcohol content, typically less than 15%. Nor does it include wine based products fortified with spirits, such as port, sherry or vermouth.
  There is no evidence for a health benefit for liquor at any level of consumption. Compared to other types of alcohol, excess consumption of liquor is more strongly associated with harmful health effects.
  
  The mixing of mash ingredients that would traditionally constitute two different type of liquors would still be considered a liquor as long as it is properly distilled after fermentation has occurred.
  The mixing of two different types of liquors use still constitute a liquor by principle, such as vodka and whiskey, but would in general be called a cocktail.
  However a drink mixed with a liquor and another alcoholic beverage that is simply fermented and not distilled is no longer a liquor but a cocktail