arak vs John Barleycorn

arak and John Barleycorn both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
arak	Yes	No	No	No
John Barleycorn	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, John Barleycorn is a hypernym of arak; that is, John Barleycorn is a word with a broader meaning than arak:

arak: any of various strong liquors distilled from the fermented sap of toddy palms or from fermented molasses
John Barleycorn: an alcoholic beverage that is distilled rather than fermented

Other hypernyms of arak include booze, hard drink, hard liquor, liquor, spirits, strong drink.

arak (noun)	John Barleycorn (noun)
any of various strong liquors distilled from the fermented sap of toddy palms or from fermented molasses	an alcoholic beverage that is distilled rather than fermented