This illustrated overview is concerned with ALCOHOL and is a companion to those dealing with BABY, DRINK, IMBIBE, EAT and FOOD.

In moderation, libations with wine liberate and inspire.	Consuming spirits may lift spirits.

ALCOHOL, AQUA VITA, AGUARDIENTE or HORILKA link to "burning water" or "Vodka" evoking ideas that overlap with those about the human SPIRIT. In another sense, chemists regard SPIRITS as substances that rapidly disappear by evaporation.

Many mythologies describe spiritual ceremonies where burning incense, lighting candles, incinerating exPIREd relatives on a PYRE represent attempts to reach the ETHER and the eternal. In Ukrainian, HORILKA, HORIT and HORE mean VODKA, FIRE and SORROW. Furthermore, the central role of alcohol is underscored by such an adage as "to drown our sorrows" or by LIBATE which stresses that alcohol can offer a temporary LIBERTY or relief from the reality of matter.

Often, with further libations, people become libertines.
Further imbibing leads to drunkenness and emesis. Some drunks enter coma and may expire often because they inspire or aspire their vomit.

SPIRT in Ukrainian and SPIRITUS in Latin underscore that SPIRITS or alcoholic beverages impact the brain, SPIRIT or SOUL or put in another way, that alcohol has a rapid effect on the affect. Poets could assert that in small doses, alcohol can insPIRE and that alcoholic LIBATIONS tend to temporarily LIBERATE a person from bothersome inhibitions. Physicians can assert that high doses of alcohol inhibit respiration. Humans who imbibe ETHANOL exPIRE or exHALE a typical odor into the ETHER or the atmosphere. Overdoses of alcohol can also depress resPIRAtion to the extent that the victim will fail to inSPIRE and thus exPIRE.

The ancients coined the root METHY to refer to the characteristic stench of the gas exhaled by the inebriated. METHY points to MEDHY, MED and MEDVID which in Sanskrit and Ukrainian are for MEAD, HONEY and BEAR. In the same spirit, the ancients called aMETHYst the stone they believed to be an antidote to ebriety.

Those who expire release their spirit.

Alcohol has a long standing history in the SPIRITual living of many people. One notion is that religion and alcohol offer an alternative to the harshness of materialism or realism. In a sense, alcohol is an anesthetic albeit a rather poor one.

The roots METH-anol, ETH-anol, PROP-anol, OCTA-nol and so on, describe the number of carbons in a molecule of alcohol as being one, two, three, eight and so on. These roots appear in words such as methane, methylene or ethylene.

METHANOL or wood alcohol is toxic because when metabolized by the liver, it forms formaldehyde which is a strong fixative that kills liver cells. ETHANOL is also rapidly metabolized by the liver.

In mythology, wines, beer and mead fall under the rule of Bacchus or BROMIUS for STENCH. Centuries later, medicine introduced sedative salts named BROMIDES which, like alcohol, cause a malodorous breath or halitosis. ASCO is another ancient term linking STENCH with wine. In Latin, asco is for wine skins or bags and in Spanish it denotes revulsion.

Bacchus or Bromius point to Asco which in modern Spanish means revulsive.
Boat, boot, butt, bottom, bottle, botella.

Alcohol is a word of Arabic origin. Experts assert that its was used to describe a cosmetic used for darkening eyebrows. The Arabs mastered distillation of alcohol and made alcoholic solutions containing powdered antimony. When applied, once the alcohol evaporated, a fine shimmer of virtually invisible antimony remained on the darkened eyebrows. Later, during the industrial revolution, production of distilled alcohol introduced cheap strong alcoholic SPIRITS to the working classes and alcoholism of epidemic proportions followed.

Eyebrows were darkened with alcohol, once a name for a cosmetic.

In parallel with the introduction of affordable strong alcoholic beverages, a new international florid terminology helped promote mercenary interests. Lively monikers include AQUAVIT or "vital water"; VODKA from Slavic VODA for "water"; HORILKA in Ukrainian or AGUARDIENTE for "fire or burning water" in Spanish; WHISKey or WHISKy from WHISK; BOURBON referring to Spain and the Louisiana purchase; GRAPA related to GRAPes GRIP, GRASP or GRAPple; GROG perhaps pointing to the rum given to GROGgy sailors. There are also SPIRITS that serve as vehicles for manufacturing drugs. In France, ABSINTHE for Artemisia or Artemis is a popular liquor containing an extract from "wormwood" or Chornobyl in Ukrainian. Artemisia, as Goddess of darkness, does remind absinthe drinkers that their vision may be "darkened" to the extent of blindness. In Mexico, the popular drink PULQUE contains alkaloids that induce delusions. Pulque is made from the juices of the plant AGAVE, named after a mother who, while intoxicated, murdered her son Pentheus. The story, as given by Ovid and Euripides, is an immortal classic tragedy demonstrating the unintended consequences of drunkenness. Currently, several religious groups continue to demand the right to consume such mind altering drugs during their religious ceremonies in the belief that the induced delusions are divine in nature.

During the 19th century, it was discovered that when ETHANOL was mixed with sulfuric acid it produced an explosive gas with anesthetic properties. Named ETHER, this gas ushered the era of painless surgery.

Alcohol inhibits inhibitions.
Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah point to loathe, sodomy and camorra (quarrelsomeness).

Among the least appreciated facts regarding alcohol is that it is a TERATOGEN. Suspected to be deleterious to the unborn since Biblical times, the general awareness that alcohol is damaging to the unborn is scant. All women who can become or are pregnant should know that exposing their unborn to alcohol may cripple their child for life. Physicians should also have a greater awareness of the characteristics of  FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME or FETOPATHY.

The story of Lot is one of fire and brimstone.
The daughters of Lot upheld their reproductive imperative at the price of incest.

To close, humans are breathing ANIMAls who often have a kind ANIMA, ALMA or SOUL inclined to give ALMS to the ALIeanated. As given in Ukrainian, the living DYSHAT or respire and have a DUSHA or ALMA. In Latin and Spanish, ALMA and ALMAcen point to nourishment or nurturing. Alcoholics often are estranged or ALIENATED and seek to escape from sobriety into EBRIETY. In Spanish, ALIENTO is a sort of ALM which helps another keep breathing or be "enlivened". Alcoholics need help to carve their breathing while SOBER. Those who give ALIENTO help alcoholics find "new breathing room" and avoid ALIENATION.