• Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    No, because the alcohol in a drink (ethanol) is still not a solution.

    That’s not the original meaning either. The original meaning came from Arabic for a stibnite distillation used as eye liner. It came from Al-kuhl. It’s the same way that “spirit” came to mean a hard liquor. Distilling something down to its purest form was meant to harness the “spirit” of the thing.

    A given spirit is a solution of alcohol and water, but alcohol itself is not. Which makes the whole “technically” part of the joke fall flat.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Ethanol sure. There are hundreds of kinds of alcohols.

        Cholesterol is an alcohol. Sorbitol is an alcohol. Ethylene glycol is an alcohol. Propylene glycol is an alcohol.

        • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
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          11 months ago

          As well as e.g. sugars. I know. Thus, commonly the term alcohol referrs to either Ethanol (“alcohol”) or the whole group of substances (“an alcohol”, “alcohols”).