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liquor

LIK-er · noun

Origin

Liquor comes from Middle English licour, borrowed via Anglo-Norman licour from Latin liquor, meaning fluidity or a fluid, itself from the verb liquere, 'to be fluid or liquid.'

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Journey

The Latin root was a broad term for any liquid substance, and English first used it the same way before it narrowed toward the sense of a distilled or alcoholic drink.

Related words

It's a doublet of liqueur, meaning both words trace back to the same Latin liquor, having entered English through different paths.

More words

From Anglo-Norman

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