Alcohol: the Story of an Arabic Eyeliner that got Drunk in Europe
The word “alcohol” is an Arab immigrant that entered European languages during the Middle Ages. Like many other Arabic words, the “al” at its beginning betrays its linguistic lineage[1]. However, were you to sift through the pre-modern Arabic literature, you would never find instances of the word describing alcoholic drinks. Instead, you are likely to find countess examples of it being used to describe eyeliners.
In the early 8th century, the Islamic conquests reached the Iberian Peninsula, and over the next 800 years a succession of Islamic dominions ruled over large parts of the peninsula. A number of Arabic words permeated into the local dialects, including the vernacular of the Castilian region[2]. Inhabitants of Castile would use the verb “alcoholar” to describe the application of make up on the eyes[3], and the ladies would apply “stone of alcohol” on their eye lashes (“Piedra de Alcohol”[4]).
The Castilian city of Toledo became a major center for the translation of classic Arabic works into Latin. Towards the end of the 13th century, Gerardus Cremonensis, who worked in the city, translated Ibn Sina’s “Canon of Medicine” from Arabic to Latin[5]. Ibn Sina’s medical compendium includes a large section on the anatomy of the eye, its conditions and diseases[6]. Remedies include eyeliners or eye drops made of a variety of substances (Many of these concoctions would probably repulse a modern patient). When translating these passages, it seemed natural for Gerardus Cremonensis to translate the arabic word for eyeliners or eye drops with the new Latin word, “alcohol”[7]. The Latin version of Ibn Sina’s medical treatise was widely read across Europe for many centuries, and “alcohol” was thereby exported across the continent. The word came to designate the powder or extract of a substance.
In the 16th century, a scholar named Paracelsus used for the first time the Latin expression “alcohol vini” to describe the distillate of wine[8]. Our Arabic eyeliner had finally gotten a taste of alcohol, and started taking its modern meaning.
[1] “Al” is the definite article in the Arabic language, and is the equivalent of “The” in English. In addition to its Arabic etymology, the word has an older Semitic root: “khl”.
[2] The Castilian language would later morph into the modern Spanish language.
[3] You can read as an example “alcoholar los ojos“ in Antonio de Guevara, Libro aureo del gran emperador Marco Aurelio, con el Relox de Principes (1650 edition, page 335). The book was written in the early 16th century.
[4] Jean Chartier, La science du plomb sacré des sages (1651 edition, page 15).
[5] There appears to have been two Gerardus Cremonensis active in Toledo: the first one during the 12th century, and the second one during the 13th century. I am interested in the “Second” Gerardus Cremonensis, who is sometimes referred to as “Gerardus Sablonetanus”. See Avicenna, Liber canonis totius medicinae (1522 edition).
[6] See Avicenna, Al-ḳanūn fīʼl-ṭibb (“القانون في الطب”). The eye is covered in section 3 of the book (Pages 161–216 of the second volume, 1999 edition).
[7] Some claim that “Alcohol” was a translation of stibnite (also called antimonite). Stibnite is a type of mineral that was used for black eyeliners, and was sometimes called “black eyeliner” in classic arabic texts (“الكحل الأسود”). A close inspection of Gerardus Cremonensis’ translation of Ibn Sina’s Medical Canon enables us to dismiss this claim. Ibn Sina has a passage that deals with the “white in the eye” (“فصل في البياض في العين”, Subsection 3 of Section 3, page 184 of the second volume, 1999 edition). In this passage, Ibn Sina mentions both stibnite (“إثمد”) and concoctions for the eyes. Gerardus Cremonensis translates the first as “atimony”, and the second as “alcohol” (Page 166 of the 1522 edition). The missing “n” from “a[n]timony” is a topographical error.
[8] See Paracelsus, Aureoli Philippi Theophrasti Bombasts von Hohenheim Paracelsi … Opera Bücher vnd Schrifften (1616 Edition). After Paracelsus used the expression “alcohol vini”, the word started having two meanings: an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic one. See for example N. Bailey, An universal etymological English dictionary (1735 edition).
