Etymologically
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alcoholism

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 13:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈælkəhɒˌlɪzəm/[1]
  • US: /ˈælkə(ˌ)hɔˌlɪzəm/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English alcohol + -ism,[2][3][4] perhaps partly after New Latin alcoholismus,[3][5] the name the Swedish physician Magnus Huss gave to the disease caused by drinking alcohol, in his “Alcoholismus chronicus”.[2][3] The OED dates Huss's work to 1849 and finds his Swedish alkoholism in the same year, Alkoholismus from 1850 and alcoolisme from 1851;[2] Etymonline dates his coinage to 1852, the year of a German translation in which Huss wrote that he had given the disease this new name.[3][2] Scientific Latin had used alcoholismus earlier, from 1652, for pulverization.[2] Merriam-Webster derives the English word from the New Latin one.[5][6] alcohol itself is from Medieval Latin alcohol (“powdered ore of antimony”), from Arabic اَلْكُحْل (al-kuḥl, “kohl”), the fine powder used to darken the eyelids.[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Consumption of alcohol, especially to excess, and the drunkenness or illness it causes: 1848, in J. Cowen's First and Last Days of Alcohol the Great.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

At first the word named the effects of alcohol on the body, what Etymonline calls "alcohol poisoning", acute or chronic.[2][3] In later use it came to mean the disease of addiction to alcohol, a chronic condition harming health and social life;[2][4][8] Etymonline dates this sense by 1882,[3] and notes that the habit had earlier been called habitual drunkenness.[3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate and the RHWU, older references, date the word to 1860 and 1855–60.[9][10]

Timeline

  • 1848 – consumption of alcohol to excess; alcoholic intoxication.[2][5]
  • 1849 – Huss's Alcoholismus chronicus names the disease.[2]
  • 1882 – the disease of addiction to alcohol, by this date.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A chronic disorder marked by compulsive drinking of alcohol and dependence on it, harming health and social life.[5][11][8]
  2. Continued excessive or compulsive use of alcoholic drinks.[5][9]
  3. Poisoning by alcohol; the bodily and mental disturbance it causes.[9][11][2]

Word family

  • antialcoholism

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin