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by wickedwillie on August 22nd, 2004

wickedwillie

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What's the origin of the word "alcohol"?

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  • by MarkPNeyer on August 22nd, 2004

    MarkPNeyer

    The word 'alcohol' is almost definately of arabic origin, due to the 'al' prefix. The exact origin isn't known. One theory is that it comes from al-kuhul, which was the name for a powdered antimony sulphide. The only problem with this idea is that the arabic word for alcohol, al-ghawl, doesn't derive from al-kuhul. al-ghawl literally means 'spirits,' which fits closely with the use of the term in the english language.

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  • by Alatea on September 19th, 2005

    Alatea

    WORD HISTORY The al– in alcohol may alert some readers to the fact that this is a word of Arabic descent, as is the case with algebra and alkali, al being the Arabic definite article corresponding to “the” in English. The origin of cohol is less obvious, however. Its Arabic ancestor was kuhl, a fine powder most often made from antimony and used by women to darken their eyelids; in fact, kuhl has given us the word kohl for such a preparation. Arabic chemists came to use al kuhl to mean “any fine powder produced in a number of ways, including the process of heating a substance to a gaseous state and then recooling it.” The English word alcohol, derived through Medieval Latin from Arabic, is first recorded in 1543 in this sense. Arabic chemists also used al kuhl to refer to other substances such as essences that were obtained by distillation, a sense first found for English alcohol in 1672. One of these distilled essences, known as “alcohol of wine,” is the constituent of fermented liquors that causes intoxication. This essence took over the term alcohol for itself, whence it has come to refer to the liquor that contains this essence as well as to a class of chemical compounds such as methanol.

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  • by Anonymous on October 13th, 2009

    Anonymous

    well i like to eat muffins so THERE FATSO DUMBASS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YA MUM

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  • by Jomennis_G on March 8th, 2011

    Jomennis_G

    The word 'alcohol' is almost definately of arabic origin, due to the 'al' prefix. The exact origin isn't known. One theory is that it comes from al-kuhul, which was the name for a powdered antimony sulphide. The only problem with this idea is that the arabic word for alcohol, al-ghawl, doesn't derive from al-kuhul. al-ghawl literally means 'spirits,' which fits closely with the use of the term in the english language.

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