alcohol

alcohol

See also: álcohol

English

Etymology

Entered in the early 15th c. from Middle English alcofol, from Middle French alcohol or Spanish alcohol, derived from the Medieval Latin rendering alcohol transmitted in medical or alchemical literature of Arabic اَلْكُحْل‎ (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.

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]

Doublet of alcool and kohl.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.kə.hɒl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.kə.hɔl/, /ˈæl.kə.hɑl/
• (US, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˈɑl.kə.hɔl/, /ˈɑl.kə.hɑl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

alcohol (countable and uncountable, plural alcohols)

An assortment of alcoholic beverages

1. (organic chemistry, countable) Any of a class of organic compounds (such as ethanol) containing a hydroxyl functional group (-OH).
2. (colloquial) Ethanol.
3. (uncountable) Beverages containing ethanol, collectively.
   • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

     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.

4. (obsolete) Any very fine powder.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage

Derived terms

• absolute alcohol
• acetic alcohol
• alcohol abuse
• alcohol addiction
• alcohol by volume
• alcohol flush reaction
• alcohol-free
• alcoholic
• alcoholicity
• alcohol intoxication
• alcoholism
• alcohol poisoning
• alcohol-related dementia
• alcohol use disorder
• alcohol withdrawal syndrome
• allyl alcohol
• amino alcohol
• amyl alcohol
• azidoalcohol
• benzyl alcohol
• butyl alcohol
• cetyl alcohol
• coniferyl alcohol
• denatured alcohol
• deoxy sugar alcohol
• ethyl alcohol
• fatty alcohol
• fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
• fetal alcohol syndrome
• foetal alcohol syndrome
• fusel alcohol
• -holic
• -holism
• isoamyl alcohol
• isopropyl alcohol
• lauryl alcohol
• low-alcohol
• methyl alcohol
• neopentyl alcohol
• nonalcoholic
• non-alcoholic
• -ol
• perillyl alcohol
• phenethyl alcohol
• polyhydric alcohol
• polyvinyl alcohol
• primary alcohol
• propyl alcohol
• rubbing alcohol
• secondary alcohol
• sugar alcohol
• sulfur alcohol
• sulphur alcohol
• tertiary alcohol
• unit of alcohol
• wood alcohol
• wood-alcohol

 

Descendants

• → Arabic: كُحُول‎ (kuḥūl)
• → Korean: 알코올 (alkool), 알콜 (alkol)
• →? Malay: alcohol
• → Tok Pisin: alkohol

Translations

organic chemistry sense

Afrikaans: alkohol (af) Albanian: alkool (sq) m Arabic: كُحُول‎ (ar) m (kuḥūl), غُول‎ (ar) m (ḡūl) Aragonese: alcohol m Armenian: ալկոհոլ (hy) (alkohol), սպիրտ (hy) (spirt) Asturian: alcohol m Azerbaijani: alkoqol, spirt, alkohol South Azerbaijani: الکل‎ (alkol), کحول‎ (köhül), Basque: alkohol (eu) Belarusian: алкаго́ль m (alkahólʹ), спірт m (spirt) Bengali: এলকোহল (elôkohôlô) Bulgarian: алкохо́л (bg) m (alkohól) Catalan: alcohol (ca) m Chechen: алкоголь (alkogolʲ), спирт (spirt) Chinese: Cantonese: 醇 (seon4), 酒精 (zau2 zing1) Mandarin: 醇 (zh) (chún), 酒精 (zh) (jiǔjīng) Min Nan: 酒精 (zh-min-nan) (chiú-cheng) Czech: alkohol (cs) m Danish: alkohol (da) Dutch: alcohol (nl) m Esperanto: alkoholo (eo) Estonian: alkohol (et) Fiji Hindi: alcohol Finnish: alkoholi (fi) French: alcool (fr) m Galician: alcohol (gl) m, alcol (gl) m Georgian: ალკოჰოლი (alḳoholi), სპირტი (sṗirṭi) German: Alkohol (de) m Greek: αλκοόλη (el) f (alkoóli) Haitian Creole: alkòl Hebrew: אַלְכּוֹהוֹל‎ (he) m (alkohól) Hindi: सुरासार (hi) (surāsār), मद्यसार (madyasār), ऐल्कोहॉल (ailkohŏl) Hungarian: alkohol (hu), szesz (hu) Icelandic: alkóhól (is) n Ido: alkoholo (io) Indonesian: alkohol (id) Interlingua: alcohol Irish: alcól m Italian: alcol (it) m, alcole (it) m Japanese: アルコール (ja) (arukōru) Kazakh: алкоголь (alkogol), есірткіш (kk) (esırtkış), спирт (spirt) Khmer: អាកុល (ʼaakol) Korean: 알코올 (ko) (alkool), 알콜 (ko) (alkol) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: alkol (ku) Kyrgyz: алкоголь (ky) (alkogolʹ), спирт (ky) (spirt), эширткич (eşirtkiç) Lao: ແອັລກໍຮໍ (ʼæn kǭ hǭ) Latin: alcohol n Latvian: alkohols m, spirts m Lithuanian: alkoholis (lt), spiritas m Macedonian: алкохол m (alkohol) Malay: alkohol (ms) Maori: waiwaihā Mongolian: Cyrillic: спирт (mn) (spirt) Mongolian: ᠰᠫᠢᠷᠲ᠋ (spirt) Nahuatl: techichic Navajo: tó łikoní Norman: alcool m Northern Thai: ᩋᩯᩢ᩠ᩃᨠᩬᩌᩬ Norwegian: Bokmål: alkohol (no) m, sprit m Nynorsk: alkohol m, sprit m Oromo: alkoolii (om) Pashto: الکول‎ (ps) m (alkól) Persian: الکل‎ (fa) (alkol) Polish: alkohol (pl) m Portuguese: álcool (pt) m Romanian: alcool (ro) m Russian: спирт (ru) m (spirt), алкого́ль (ru) m (alkogólʹ) Scottish Gaelic: alcol m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: а̀лкохол m Roman: àlkohol (sh) m Slovak: alkohol (sk) m Slovene: alkohól (sl) m inan Sotho: tahi (st) Spanish: alcohol (es) m Swahili: pombe kali Swedish: alkohol (sv) c Tajik: алкоголь (alkogol'), спирт (tg) (spirt) Thai: แอลกอฮอล์ (th) (ɛn-gɔɔ-hɔɔ) Turkish: alkol (tr), sün (tr), ruh (tr) Turkmen: alkogol (tk), spirt Ukrainian: алкого́ль (uk) m (alkohólʹ), спирт m (spyrt) Urdu: الکحل‎ (elkohol) Uyghur: ئالكوگول‎ (alkogol), ئىسپىرت‎ (ispirt) Uzbek: alkogol (uz), spirt (uz) Vietnamese: rượu (vi), rượu cồn (vi) Volapük: lalkohol (vo) Welsh: alcohol (cy) m Yiddish: אַלקאָהאָל‎ m (alkohol) Yoruba: ọtí

intoxicating beverage

Afrikaans: alkohol (af) Albanian: alkool (sq) m Arabic: كُحُول‎ (ar) m (kuḥūl), مَشْرُوب كُحُولِيّ‎ m (mašrūb kuḥūliyy), مَشْرُوب رُوحِيّ‎ m (mašrūb rūḥiyy) Armenian: ալկոհոլ (hy) (alkohol), սպիրտ (hy) (spirt) Asturian: alcohol m Azerbaijani: alkoqol, spirt Belarusian: алкаго́ль m (alkahólʹ), спірт m (spirt), спіртны́ напо́й m (spirtný napój) Bengali: মদ্য (môdẏ) Bulgarian: алкохо́л (bg) m (alkohól), спирт m (spirt), спи́ртна напи́тка f (spírtna napítka) Burmese: အရက် (my) (a.rak) Catalan: alcohol (ca) m Chechen: къаьрка (qʼärka), алкоголин малар (alkogolin malar), корта бахош долу малар (korta baxoš dolu malar) Cherokee: ᎠᎹ ᎠᏑᏴᏗ ᏫᏍᎩ (ama asuyvdi wisgi) Chinese: Cantonese: 酒 (yue) (zau2) Dungan: җю (ži͡u) Mandarin: 酒 (zh) (jiǔ), 烈酒 (zh) (lièjiǔ), 蒸餾酒／蒸馏酒 (zh) (zhēngliújiǔ) Min Nan: 酒 (zh-min-nan) (chiú) Classical Nahuatl: ōctli Czech: alkohol (cs) m Danish: alkohol (da) Dutch: alcohol (nl) m, alcoholische drank m, sterke drank m Esperanto: alkoholo (eo) Estonian: alkohol (et), alko (slang), alks (slang) Finnish: alkoholi (fi) French: alcool (fr) m, boisson alcoolisée (fr) f, boisson alcoolique (fr) f Galician: alcohol (gl) m, alcol (gl) m Georgian: სპირტი (sṗirṭi) German: Alkohol (de) m, Weingeist (de) (old), Branntwein (de) (juristic) Greek: οινόπνευμα (el) n (oinópnevma), αλκοόλ (el) n (alkoól) Hebrew: אַלְכּוֹהוֹל‎ (he) m (alkohól) Hindi: शराब (hi) f (śarāb), मदिरा (hi) f (madirā) Hungarian: alkohol (hu), szeszes ital (hu) Icelandic: áfengi (is) n Ido: alkoholo (io) Indonesian: alkohol (id), arak (id) Irish: alcól m, deoch mheisciúil f Italian: alcol (it) m Japanese: アルコール (ja) (arukōru), 酒 (ja) (さけ, sake), お酒 (osake) Jarai: tơpai Kazakh: алкоголь (alkogol), спирт (spirt) Khmer: មជ្ជ (km) (maccĕəʼ), វារុណី (km) (viərunii), ស្រា (km) (sraa), សុរា (km) (soraa), អាកុល (ʼaakol) Korean: 술 (ko) (sul), 알코올 (ko) (alkool), 알콜 (ko) (alkol) Kyrgyz: алкоголь (ky) (alkogolʹ), спирт (ky) (spirt) Lao: ເຫຼົ້າ (lao), ສຸຣາ (su rā), ສຸລາ (su lā) Latin: tēmētum n, ebriamen n Latvian: alkohols m Lithuanian: alkoholis (lt) m Macedonian: алкохол m (alkohol), жесток пијалок m (žestok pijalok) Malay: alkohol (ms) Malayalam: മദ്യം (ml) (madyaṃ), കള്ള് (ml) (kaḷḷŭ) Maltese: alkoħol m Manchu: ᠠᡵᡴᡳ (arki), ᠨᡠᡵᡝ (nure) Maori: waipiro Meänkieli: ilojuoma Mongolian: Cyrillic: архи (mn) (arxi) Mongolian: ᠠᠷᠢᠬᠢ (ariqi) Norman: alcool m Norwegian: Bokmål: alkohol (no) m Nynorsk: alkohol m Oriya: ମଦ (or) (môdô) Pashto: شراب‎ (ps) m (šarãb) Persian: عرق‎ (fa) ('araq) Polish: alkohol (pl) m Portuguese: álcool (pt) m Romanian: alcool (ro) n Russian: алкого́ль (ru) m (alkogólʹ), спирт (ru) m (spirt), спиртно́й напи́ток m (spirtnój napítok), алкого́льный напи́ток m (alkogólʹnyj napítok), кре́пкий напи́ток m (krépkij napítok), спиртно́е (ru) n (spirtnóje) Sanskrit: मद्य (sa) n (madya) Scottish Gaelic: alcol m, deoch làidir f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: а̀лкохол m Roman: àlkohol (sh) m Slovak: alkohol (sk) m Slovene: alkohól (sl) m inan Sotho: tahi (st) Spanish: alcohol (es) m Swedish: alkohol (sv) c, sprit (sv) c Tajik: арақ (araq) Thai: สุรา (th) (sù-raa), เหล้า (th) (lâo) Tocharian B: mot Turkish: alkol (tr) Turkmen: alkogol (tk), spirt, içgi Ukrainian: алкого́ль (uk) m (alkohólʹ), спирт m (spyrt), спиртни́й напі́й m (spyrtnýj napíj) Urdu: شراب‎ (ur) f (śarāb), مدیرا‎ f (madirā) Uyghur: ئالكوگول‎ (alkogol), ئىسپىرت‎ (ispirt) Uzbek: alkogol (uz), spirt (uz) Vietnamese: rượu (vi), tửu (vi) Volapük: lalkohol (vo) Yiddish: אַלקאָהאָל‎ m (alkohol) Zulu: utshwala (zu) class 14

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Kuna: (please verify) alcohol Persian: (please verify) الکل‎ (fa) (alkol) Punjabi: (please verify) ਸ਼ਰਾਬ (pa) (śarāb), (please verify) ਦਾਰੂ (dārū) Slovak: (please verify) alkohol (sk) m Thai: (please verify) สุรา (th) (sù-raa)

References

1. “Etymology of Alcohol”, in (please provide the title of the work)‎, accessed 31 December 2008, archived from the original on 2011-06-10
2. Nicolae Sfetcu, Health & Drugs: Disease, Prescription & Medication (2014)

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Asturian

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcoholes)

1. alcohol

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Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /əl.koˈɔl/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /əl.kuˈɔl/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /al.koˈɔl/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcohols)

1. (organic chemistry, countable) alcohol
2. (uncountable) alcohol

Related terms

• alcohòlic
• alcoholisme

Further reading

• “alcohol” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

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Dutch

Alternative forms

• alkohol (superseded)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alcohol or Spanish alcohol, of Arabic origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑl.koːˌɦɔl/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: al‧co‧hol

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcoholen)

1. (countable, organic chemistry) alcohol (class of compounds)
2. (uncountable) alcohol (ethanol specifically)

Hyponyms

• (beverage): sterke drank

Derived terms

• alcoholica
• alcoholicus
• alcoholisch
• alcoholisme
• alcoholist
• alcoholslot

Related terms

• -ol

Descendants

• Afrikaans: alkohol
• → Indonesian: alkohol
• → Japanese: アルコール (arukōru)
  • → Pohnpeian: ahrkohl

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcohols)

1. (rare) Alternative spelling of alcool

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Galician

Alternative forms

• alcol

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcohois)

1. alcohol

Related terms

• alcohólico
• alcoholismo

Further reading

• “alcohol” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

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Interlingua

Noun

alcohol (uncountable)

1. alcohol (ethanol)

Related terms

• alcoholic

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Latin

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic اَلْكُحُول‎ (al-kuḥūl), اَلْقُحُول‎ (al-quḥūl), earlier اَلْكُحْل‎ (al-kuḥl, “kohl”). Ultimately from Akkadian.

Pronunciation

• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈal.ko.ol/, [ˈälkoːl]

Noun

alcohol n (genitive alcoholis); third declension

1. (Medieval Latin) kohl, collyrium, stibium
2. (Medieval Latin) any other powder obtained from triturating a material

   alcohol ferrī ― rubbed file dust of iron

3. (Medieval Latin) distilled essence, spirit
4. (Medieval Latin) alcohol

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	alcohol	alcohola
Genitive	alcoholis	alcoholum
Dative	alcoholī	alcoholibus
Accusative	alcohol	alcohola
Ablative	alcohole	alcoholibus
Vocative	alcohol	alcohola

Derived terms

• alcoholicus

Descendants

• → Albanian: alkool
• → Armenian: ալկոհոլ (alkohol)
• → Asturian: alcohol
• → Catalan: alcohol
• → Dutch: alcohol, alkohol
  • Afrikaans: alkohol
  • → Indonesian: alkohol
  • → Japanese: アルコール (arukōru)
    • → Pohnpeian: ahrkohl
• → Esperanto: alkoholo
  • → Ido: alkoholo
• → Old French: alcohol
  • Middle French: alcohol
    • French: alcohol, alcool (see there for further descendants)
    • → Middle English: alcofol
      • English: alcohol (see there for further descendants)
• → Galician: alcohol
• → German: Alkohol (see there for further descendants)
• → Hebrew: אַלְכּוֹהוֹל‎
• → Interlingua: alcohol
• → Italian: alcool, alcol
• → Norwegian Bokmål: alkohol
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: alkohol
• → Portuguese: álcool
• → Romanian: alcool
• → Serbo-Croatian: àlkohol/а̀лкохол
• → Slovak: alkohol
• → Slovene: alkohọ̑l
• → Spanish: alcohol
  • → Basque: alkohol

References

• alcohol in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

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Old French

This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. This language is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.

Noun

alcohol m (oblique plural alcohous or alcohox or alcohols, nominative singular alcohous or alcohox or alcohols, nominative plural alcohol)

1. alcohol

Descendants

• Middle French: alcohol
  • French: alcohol, alcool (see there for further descendants)
  • → Middle English: alcofol
    • English: alcohol (see there for further descendants)

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Romanian

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcoholi)

1. Obsolete form of alcool.

Declension

Declension of alcohol

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) alcohol	alcoholul	(niște) alcoholi	alcoholii
genitive/dative	(unui) alcohol	alcoholului	(unor) alcoholi	alcoholilor
vocative	alcoholule		alcoholilor

References

• alcohol in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

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Spanish

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic اَلْكُحُول‎ (al-kuḥū́l), from Arabic اَلْكُحْل‎ (al-kuḥl, “kohl”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /alˈkol/ [alˈkol]

• Audio (Colombia)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ol

Noun

alcohol m (plural alcoholes)

1. alcohol
2. (mineralogy) galena
3. (cosmetics) kohl, stibnite

Derived terms

• alcohol alílico
• alcohol amílico
• alcoholar
• alcoholemia
• alcohol etílico
• alcohólico
• alcoholimetría
• alcoholímetro
• alcoholismo
• alcoholista
• alcoholizar
• alcohol metílico
• alcohómetro

 

Further reading

• “alcohol”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014