Where Does the Word “Alcohol” Come From?

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Offline ABM Nazmul Islam

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Where Does the Word “Alcohol” Come From?
« on: September 30, 2014, 10:14:10 AM »
 The word “alcohol” comes from the Arabic term alkohl meaning “the fine powder.” Originally, thisreferred to an antimony sulfide compound used foreye shadow, which was ground up to form a finepowder, but then later came to refer to any finely divided powder.In the Middle Ages, this term came to mean the “essence” of anything.• When the Europeans took up alchemy in the MiddleAges, they referred to vapors from evaporating orboiling compounds as “spirits,” since they did notbelieve them to be material in the same sense that
solids and liquids were. Alchemists began referring to “spirits of wine,” and since an alcohol when it boils away seems to powder away to nothing, they also began to refer to “alcohol of wine” and then simply “alcohol”.
ABM Nazmul Islam

Lecturer
Dept. of Natural Science
Daffodil Int. University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Offline Nayeem Arch

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Re: Where Does the Word “Alcohol” Come From?
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2015, 04:05:28 PM »
Iformative.thank u
Md. Nazmul Hoque Nayeem
Lecturer,Dept.of Architecture
Daffodil International University

Offline Antara11

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Re: Where Does the Word “Alcohol” Come From?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2015, 06:02:31 PM »
Informative one.
Antara Basak
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of English

Offline shafayet

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Re: Where Does the Word “Alcohol” Come From?
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2015, 02:52:41 AM »
Interesting :)