Wikipedia's first sentence called it “closely related to the greek ouzo and to the french pastis”. Today it says “distilled levantine spirit of the anise drinks family”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
A clear, colorless Middle-eastern and eastern Mediterranean liqueur , made in Iran , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , and Jordan . Made from grapes and anise , arak (from Arabic araq عرق, meaning "sweat") is closely related to the Greek ouzo and to the French pastis . It is served with meals or as an aperitif, and mixed with water , which makes it opaque (as with other anise-flavored liqueurs ). In Iran, arak is made in many homes and is consumed on various occasions. More common in Iran is a purer and stronger sort of Arak, made without anise, which is called Aragh-e Sagi ( Persian : عرق سگی, literally dog's arak ). See also Raki , a similar drink from Turkey , and arrack , a different drink from southeast Asia .1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16421042.
The opening as it stood in 2010 6 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Arak or araq ( Arabic : عرق Hebrew : ערק ) is a clear, colourless, unsweetened aniseed -flavoured distilled alcoholic drink (also labeled as an Apéritif ).It is the traditional alcoholic beverage in Syria , Lebanon and Israel .It is also produced and consumed in the Eastern Mediterranean , Northern African countries, Iran , Palestine , Iraq , Jordan , and Egypt .The word comes from Arabic ˤaraq عرق , meaning 'sweat'.Arak is not to be confused with the similarly named liquor, arrack (which in some cases, such as in Indonesia—especially Bali, also goes by the name arak).Another similarly sounding word is aragh , which in Armenia and Azerbaijan is the colloquial name of vodka , and not an aniseed-flavored drink.Raki , zivania , and ouzo are aniseed-flavored alcoholic drinks, related to arak, popular in Turkey , Cyprus , and Greece .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370980163.
The opening as it stood in 2015 6 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Arak or araq ( ) is a Levantine alcoholic spirit (~40–63% Alc.Vol./~80–126 proof) in the anis drinks family.It is a clear, colorless, unsweetened anise -flavored distilled alcoholic drink .Arak is the traditional alcoholic beverage in Lebanon , Iraq , Syria , Jordan , Palestine , Israel , and Iran .Arak today is largely a product of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.But most would concede that the best of the lot is Lebanese.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 668462754.
The opening as it stood in 2020 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Arak or araq ( ) is a Levantine unsweetened distilled spirit (≈40–63% alc/vol or ≈80–126 proof ) in the anise drinks family.It is a translucent white anise -flavored drink.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 948527882.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Middle Eastern distilled spirit For the East Asian liquor, sometimes also spelt "arak", see arrack .Arak or araq ( ) is a distilled Levantine spirit of the anise drinks family.It is translucent and unsweetened.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178813016.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Middle Eastern distilled spirit For the East Asian liquor, sometimes also spelt "arak", see arrack . Arak or araq ( Arabic : عرق), is a distilled Levantine spirit of the anise drinks family.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1297127165. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “closely related to the greek ouzo and to the french pastis”. Today it says “distilled levantine spirit of the anise drinks family”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
closely related to the greek ouzo and to the french pastis
Now
distilled levantine spirit of the anise drinks family
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
