medieval Latin alcohol via Old Spanish from Arabic al-kuḥul the powdered antimony. The modern sense of alcohol did not emerge until the middle of the 18th cent. As borrowed from Arabic, it orig denoted powdered antimony used as a cosmetic to darken the eyelids. Thence it was taken up by chemists in the 16th cent. to refer to any fine powder. By a further development in the 17th cent., the word was applied in chemistry to any refined liquid obtained by distillation or purification – especially to alcohol of wine, which in time was shortened to simply alcohol.