potion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pocioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French pocion (“potion, draught, medicine”),^[3][2][5] also pocioun and potion,^[6][7] from Latin pōtiō (“a drinking, a drink; a poisonous draught, a philtre”),^[6][3][8][9] formed on the stem of pōtō (“to drink”).^[6][8][9] Etymonline and Barnhart take it through pōtus (“drunken”), the irregular past participle of the verb.^[3][2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the middle of the 13th century, both as a drink and as a medicinal drink.^[10] The Latin noun is also the source of pozione and ponzoña (“poison”),^[3] and, through poison, of English poison, a doublet of potion.^[3][7][11] The root is Proto-Indo-European *pō(i)- (“to drink”),^[3][5][11] also behind bibō (“to drink”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medicinal drink: probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder,^[2] a text the OED cites from a manuscript of about 1400.^[6] Etymonline dates it to about 1300, as a dose of liquid medicine or poison.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Already in Latin pōtiō meant a poisonous draught and a magic potion as well as a drink;^[3][6] the Merriam-Webster word histories note that the use of potions for dark magical purposes helped turn its Old French descendant poison into the word for something deadly.^[12] In English potion was used of a magical or enchanted drink by the early 15th century,^[3] and the OED adds that it could disparage an unorthodox or quack medicine.^[6] A figurative potion, something given as punishment or remedy, is recorded from 1577.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as a draught, "commonly a physical draught", that is, a medicine.^[13] The sense of a measure of drink or a dose, from about 1484, is now archaic, and the plain sense of a beverage, from 1634, is rare.^[6][14] The verb, to dose with a potion, appears in 1611.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1300 – pocioun, a medicinal drink.^[2][6]
• early 15th century – a magical drink.^[3]
• c. 1484 – a dose, a draught.^[6]
• 1577 – figurative, something given as remedy or punishment.^[6]
• 1611 – verb, to dose or drug with a potion.^[6]
• 1634 – a kind of drink, a beverage.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drink of medicine or poison, or one believed to have magical powers: The old herbalist mixed a sleeping potion.^[14][4][6]
2. (rare) A beverage.^[14][6]

Verb

1. (archaic) To give a potion to; to dose or drug.^[4][6][15]

Word family

• love potion

Related words

• poison
• potable
• potation
• symposium
• bibulous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press