potion

potion

English

Etymology

From Middle English pocioun, borrowed from Old French pocion, from Latin pōtiō (“a drinking”), potiōnis, from pōtāre (“to drink”). Doublet of poison.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəʊ.ʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -əʊʃən

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

potion (plural potions)

1. A small portion or dose of a liquid which is medicinal, poisonous, or magical.

   He hoped to win the princess's heart by mixing the love potion the witch gave him into her drink.

Synonyms

• lib (Britain dialectal, Scotland)

Derived terms

• love potion

Translations

small portion or dose of a liquid which is medicinal, poisonous, or magical

Basque: edabe (eu) Bulgarian: елексир m (eleksir) Catalan: poció (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 藥劑／药剂 (zh) (yàojì), 藥水／药水 (zh) (yàoshuǐ) Czech: lektvar (cs) m Dutch: drankje (nl) n, toverdrankje (nl), tinctuur (nl) Esperanto: eliksiro Finnish: mikstuura (fi) (medicinal), myrkkymalja (poisonous), taikajuoma (magical), rohto (fi), rohdos (fi) French: potion (fr) Galician: beberaxe m, apócema f German: Trank (de) m, Zaubertrank (de) m (magical), Wundertrank m (miraculous), Gifttrank m (poisonous), Heiltrank (de) m (medicinal), Elixier (de) n Greek: φίλτρο (el) n (fíltro) Hebrew: שיקוי‎ (he) m (shikuy) Hindi: दवाई (hi) f (davāī), अर्क़ m (arq), काढ़ा m (kāṛhā) Ido: pociono (io) Italian: pozione (it) f Latin: venēficium n (magical), pōtiō f Macedonian: напивка f (napivka) Malay: posyen Maori: waimatarau Polish: mikstura (pl) f, napój leczniczy m (medicinal), napój magiczny m (magical) Portuguese: poção f Romanian: poțiune (ro) f Russian: сна́добье (ru) n (snádobʹje), зе́лье (ru) n (zélʹje) Scottish Gaelic: deoch-eiridinn f Spanish: poción (es) f, brebaje (es) m, elixir (es) m, pócima f, bebedizo m Swedish: trolldryck c Turkish: iksir (tr), posyon Ukrainian: зі́лля n (zíllja) Vietnamese: nước bùa, thần dược (vi), thuốc nước

Verb

potion (third-person singular simple present potions, present participle potioning, simple past and past participle potioned)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To drug (someone).
   • 1623, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The Historie of Great Britaine vnder the Conqvests of the Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Iohn Beale, for George Hvmble, […], OCLC 150671135:

     hauing potioned them with a sleepy drinke […]

Anagrams

• option

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pōtio, pōtiōnis. Doublet of poison, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔ.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

potion f (plural potions)

1. potion

See also

• philtre

Further reading

• “potion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.