Meanings
- uncountablealchemyA theoretical substance which would confer eternal life on the drinker.
This tradition found its way to the West in the notion of ‘potable gold’ (aurum potabile), a medicine that, if drunk, would cure all manner of ills.
2002, Philip Ball, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, published 2004, page 60Synonyms: elixir of life
- historicaluncountableA preparation consisting of gold particles in oil and alcohol.
The tincture of the gold known as Mademoiselle Grimaldi's potable gold had a wide reputation in the eighteenth century as an aphrodisiac stimulant.
1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 234
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA theoretical substance which would confer eternal life on the drinker.
Origin
From potable + gold. From being something drinkable that is like gold. * (alchemy): from being an elixir that confers the untarnishability and eternity of gold to a person
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
potable gold. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/potable%20gold
“potable gold.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/potable%20gold. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “potable gold,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/potable%20gold.
Source: potable gold on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.