Etymology Dictionary

ALCOHOL,  pure spirit.  (F.,—Arabic.)   Borrowed from F. alcool, formerly spelt alcohol (see Brachet), the original signification of which is a fine, impalpable powder.   'If the same salt shall be reduced into alcohol, as the chymists speak, or an impalpable powder, the particles and intercepted spaces will be extremely lessened;' Boyle (in Todd's Johnson).—Arab. alkahál or alkohl, compounded of al, the definite article, and kahál or kohl, the (very fine) powder of antimony, used to paint the eyebrows with.   See Richardson's Dict. p. 1173; cf. kuhl, collyrium; Palmer's Pers. Dict. col. 484.   The extension of meaning from 'fine powder' to 'rectified spirit' is European, not Arabic.   Der. alcohol-ic, alcohol-ize. [†]

ADDENDA

'Applied to the black sulphid of antimony, which is used as a collyrium.   Cf. Ezek. xxiii. 40 in Heb. and LXX.   The idea of fineness and tenuity probably caused this word to be applied also to the rectified spirit.   "They put betweene the eye-lids and the eye a certiane blacke powder... made of a minerall brought from the kingdome of Fez, and called Alcohole;" Sandy's Travels, 1632, p. 67.'   (T. L. O. Davies, Supplementary Glossary.)