Etymology

vitriol

V4I1T1R1I1O1L1

Today it means: Any of various metal sulphates. Full definition →

Middle English vitriol ← Old French vitriol ← Medieval Latin vitriolum
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromvitriolum“sulfuric acid”
  2. Old French · derived fromvitriol
  3. Middle English · inherited fromvitriol
  4. English todayvitriol

From Middle English vitriol, from Old French vitriol, from Medieval Latin vitriolum (“sulfuric acid”), from vitrum (“glass”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.