alcohol

Forms

alcohol n (genitive alcohōlis); third declension^[1] Also written alcofol and alcol.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic كُحُول (kuḥūl), from Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl, “kohl”).^[1][3][4] The DMLBS and Etymonline give the source with the Arabic article ⟨al-⟩ “the”, which became part of the Latin word.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler, after Latham, dates its first record before 1250, as the name of kohl: a fine powder of antimony or lead ore used as an eye salve.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval medical writers use it of this powder: one English physician calls alcol “an eye salve or a powder alike”, and a Pseudo-Avicenna treatise speaks of an alcofol of lead.^[3][4] From the eye powder it came to mean any fine powder obtained by grinding.^[1]

Paracelsus used it both for a fine powder and for a volatile liquid,^[5] and the alchemists' alcohol vīnī was the distilled spirit of wine, defined in a medieval list quoted by the DMLBS as rectified “burning water”.^[3] Köbler, after Latham, dates the sense “alcohol” to 1652.^[2] English took the word in the 1540s for a fine powder; the sense “intoxicating ingredient in strong drink” is English, from 1753.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1250 – First recorded, as the name of kohl or antimony.^[2]
• 13th century – A Pseudo-Avicenna treatise names an alcofol of lead.^[4][2]
• 1493–1541 – Paracelsus uses it for a fine powder and a volatile liquid.^[5]
• 1540s – Borrowed into English for a fine powder.^[5]
• 1652 – Recorded in the sense “alcohol”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) Kohl, a powder of antimony or galena used as an eye salve.^[3][4][1]
2. (Medieval Latin) Any fine powder obtained by grinding.^[1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A distilled spirit, alcohol.^[3][1][2]

Word family

• alcoholicus

Related words

• English alcohol

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com