nectar

Nectar comes from Latin nectar, borrowed from Ancient Greek néktar, meaning 'nourishment of the gods.' That Greek word is built from Proto-Indo-European *neḱ- ('perish, disappear') and *-tr̥h₂ ('overcoming'), itself from *terh₂- ('to overcome, pass through, cross over').

At its root, the word describes something that overcomes death or perishing — fitting for a substance believed to sustain immortal beings. Over time it settled into Greek and Latin simply as the name for that divine drink, and later into English for anything sweet and delicious, especially flower nectar.

Its second element, *-tr̥h₂, traces back to *terh₂- ('to overcome, pass through'), the same root sense of crossing over or overcoming found at the heart of the word's meaning.