alcohol (English)

Where does "alcohol" come from?

The word alcohol traces back to the Arabic term al-kuḥl, which originally referred to a fine metallic powder used as eye makeup. Through Medieval Latin and into 15th-century English as alcofol, the term evolved to describe any finely triturated substance before being applied to distilled spirits in the 17th century. By the mid-19th century, it finally specialized into the chemical and scientific sense we recognize today.

Full etymology tree

• alcohol (English), 'Any of a class of organic compounds (such as ethanol) containing a hydroxyl functional group (-OH).'
  • inherited alcofol (Middle English)
    • inherited alcohol (Latin), 'kohl, collyrium, stibium'
      • borrowed اَلْكُحُول (al-kuḥūl) (Andalusian Arabic)
        • inherited اَلْكُحْل (al-kuḥl) (Arabic)
          • borrowed כוחלא / ܟܘܚܠܐ (kuḥlā) (Aramaic)
            • inherited 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum) (Akkadian), 'Sumerogram of guḫlum (kohl)'
      • borrowed اَلْقُحُول (al-quḥūl) (Andalusian Arabic)
        • inherited اَلْكُحْل (al-kuḥl) (Arabic)
          • borrowed כוחלא / ܟܘܚܠܐ (kuḥlā) (Aramaic)
            • inherited 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum) (Akkadian), 'Sumerogram of guḫlum (kohl)'

Direct ancestors

• alcohol (Spanish)
• كحل (Arabic)
• alcool (English)
• kohl (English)

Updated July 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris