Rum, the drink, is probably an abbreviation of rumbullion or rumbustion, names applied to that spirit in the 17th century. Rum, meaning odd/strange, started life as a noun, meaning a rogue or highwayman, possibly based on the Romany word 'rom' for 'man'. It then developed into 'rum cove'...a cove being a man/chap...and from there seems to have taken on the meaning of 'strange'.