Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word alcohol. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word alcohol, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say alcohol in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word alcohol you have here. The definition of the word alcohol will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofalcohol, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
First attested in the 15 century from Middle Englishalcofol, from Middle Frenchalcohol or Spanishalcohol, derived from the Medieval Latin rendering alcohol transmitted in medical or alchemical literature of Arabicاَلْكُحْل(al-kuḥl, “kohl”), which in Andalusian Arabic also bore the form كُحُول(kuḥūl), قُحُول(quḥūl); bearing thus the meaning of stibnite first, then generalized in meaning to a powder obtained by triturating a material, then also to liquids obtained by boiling down, and specialized to mean spirit of wine, ethanol, in the 18th century, then the narrow chemical sense after 1850. Doublet of alcool and kohl.
Various old etymological notes.
Bartholomew Traheron in his 1543 translation of John of Vigo introduces the word as a term used by "barbarous" (Moorish) authors for "fine powder": the barbarous auctours use alcohol, or (as I fynde it sometymes wryten) alcofoll, for moost fine poudre.
William Johnson in his 1657 Lexicon Chymicum glosses the word as antimonium sive stibium. By extension, the word came to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including "alcohol of wine", the distilled essence of wine.
Libavius in Alchymia (1594) has vini alcohol vel vinum alcalisatum.
Johnson (1657) glosses alcohol vini as quando omnis superfluitas vini a vino separatur, ita ut accensum ardeat donec totum consumatur, nihilque fæcum aut phlegmatis in fundo remaneat.
Some authorities, including Rachel Hajar, suggest that the ultimate etymon was the Arabic term اَلْغَوْل(al-ḡawl, “bad effect, evil result of headache”) (as used in Qur’an verse 37:47, but this word is rather poetical and could for topical reasons not have been picked up from Arabic by Medieval writers, and aside from that the relation to stibium is well documented.[1][2]
Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.
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^ “Etymology of Alcohol”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), 2008 December 31 (last accessed), archived from the original on 10 June 2011
^ Nicolae Sfetcu, Health & Drugs: Disease, Prescription & Medication (2014)
alcohol in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
References
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “alcohol”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies