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Alcohol consumption
(1,796 words)

The word “alcohol” (Arabic alkul = stibnite or kohl for eye make-up) entered everyday English use in the sense of the intoxicating element in fermented liquors in the 18th century. In alchemy it meant the fine substrate of materials, their quintessence; in the 16th century, it was applied in this sense to the spirit of wine (Neo-Latin alcool vini) by Paracelsus and Libavius. In 17th-century iatrochemistry, the view came to b…

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Spode, Hasso, “Alcohol consumption”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_016707>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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