Distillacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of heating a liquid into vapor and cooling it back so it condenses purer ; the refined liquid or essence that results from this process
2. Purifying or extracting a substance by boiling it and collecting the condensed vapor ; the concentrated liquid or essence produced by this method
3. Heating a mixture to vapor and then condensing it to separate its components ; the pure liquid or extract collected from this treatment

Etymology: Middle English "distillacioun" was a borrowing from Old French "distillacion," which in turn came from Latin "distillatio," a noun from "distillare," meaning "to drip down." The Latin verb was built from "de-," meaning "down," and "stillare," meaning "to drip," itself from "stilla," a drop. So the core image is simply liquid falling one drop at a time, and that is still the sense hidden inside the process of purifying liquids by boiling and condensing them. The spelling "-cioun" reflects the Anglo-French and Middle English habit of rendering Latin "-atio" as "-acioun," the same pattern that produced words like "creacioun" for creation. The word first appeared in English in the Middle English period, so it was in use well before the chemical apparatus we now associate with the process became common.

Synonyms: distillation, refinement, extraction