Etymology

ethanol

E1T1H4A1N1O1L1

Today it means: A simple aliphatic alcohol formally derived from ethane by replacing one hydrogen atom with a hydroxyl group: CH₃-CH₂-OH. Full definition →

English alcohol ← Middle English alcofol ← Medieval Latin alcoho
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eydʰ-
  2. Proto-Hellenic*áitʰō
  3. Ancient Greekαἴθω (aíthō)
  4. Ancient Greekᾱ̓ήρ (āḗr)influ.?
  5. Ancient Greekαἰθήρ (aithḗr)
  6. Latinaethēr
  7. GermanÄther
  8. GermanEther
  9. Proto-Indo-European*swel-der.?
  10. Ancient Greekῡ̔́λη (hū́lē)
  11. GermanEthy
  12. Englishethyl
  13. Akkadian𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)
  14. Aramaicכוחלא (kuḥlā)
  15. Arabicكُحْل (kuḥl)
  16. Andalusian Arabicكُحُول (kuḥūl)
  17. Medieval Latinalcoho
  18. Middle Englishalcofol
  19. Englishalcohol
  20. Englishethyl
  21. Englisheth-
  22. Englishethane
  23. Englishalcohol
  24. English todayethanol

Contracted from ethyl + alcohol. Ethyl is from Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr, “ether”), influenced by German Äthyl. May be decomposed as ethane + -ol.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekαἰθήρ all →

etheraetheraethrioscopeeth-

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.