Elixir

How to spell elixir

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce elixir

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does elixir mean?

1. nounA liquid believed to cure illness, prolong life, or work some other powerful effect; also a sweetened medicinal solution.

Elixir in a sentence

• The old recipe book promised an elixir that could ease any cough.

• Medieval alchemists spent years searching for an elixir of eternal life.

Where does elixir come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

Elixir reached English in the 1300s from the Medieval Latin elixir, which had been borrowed in turn from the Arabic al-iksir, where al- simply means 'the'. The Arabic word itself goes back to the Greek xerion, the name for a dry powder that physicians dusted onto wounds to help them heal, from xeros meaning 'dry'. Among the alchemists, al-iksir came to mean the magical substance, often imagined as a powder or tincture, that could turn base metals into gold or grant unending life, which is why the phrase 'elixir of life' still survives. The fused Arabic article is the reason the word keeps that distinctive el- opening, a quirk it shares with other Arabic borrowings such as 'alcohol' and 'algebra'. The trap for spellers is the unstressed middle and ending: it sounds like 'i-LIK-ser' yet is written with an i after the l and an unexpected -xir close, never -xer or -cir.

How the word is built

• el- (from Arabic al-, 'the')
• -ixir (from Greek xerion, a drying powder for wounds)