Word History: The al- in alcohol may alert some readers to the fact that this is a word of Arabic descent, as is the case with algebra and alkali, al- being the Arabic definite article corresponding to the in English. The origin of -cohol is less obvious, however. Its Arabic ancestor was kuḥl, a fine powder most often made from antimony and used by women to darken their eyelids; in fact, kuḥl has given us the word kohl for such a preparation. Arabic chemists came to use al-kuḥl to mean "any fine powder produced in a number of ways, including the process of heating a substance to a gaseous state and then recooling it." The English word alcohol, derived through Medieval Latin from Arabic, is first recorded in 1543 in this sense. Arabic chemists also used al-kuḥl to refer to other substances such as essences that were obtained by distillation, a sense first found for English alcohol in 1672. One of these distilled essences, known as "alcohol of wine," is the constituent of fermented liquors that causes intoxication. This essence took over the term alcohol for itself, whence it has come to refer to the liquor that contains this essence as well as to a class of chemical compounds such as methanol.


There you go. That's why it's called alcohol.

P.S. Check out the HP Puppet Pals if you haven't already. There are 3D puppets now!

-Padfoot

Hey there! Padfoot hails.

So, Padfoot has been thinking. This is our last year together before our inevitable separation, and hence this is most likely our last summer without the moving preparations I know at least two of us will be going through. As such, we must live this last year to the fullest, yes?

Yes. I thought so.

SO! Padfoot looked back on this poor, neglected xanga and said, "NAY! Nay, you shall be neglected no longer, poor, lonely xanga!"

Such, this new layout and this entry and the really annoying process that is putting all our past entries on "private". (God, we wrote a lot.)

Now, we have many choices here, gents. We can pretend we're the real Marauders and post as such, we can basically post our real lives on here, or we can do the latter but with protected entries. (Padfoot thinks there was another option, but currently can't remember it.) Padfoot thinks we should use it, though; we're grown far too apart for Padfoot's liking, and with one year left, we cannot let that be!

(Insert dramatic music here.)

All right, all third person aside, I say we use this xanga. What say ye?

-Padfoot