Distils

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Purifies a liquid by heating it into vapor and cooling that vapor back into liquid ; extracts the essential meaning or core points from something larger
2. Refines a liquid through boiling and condensation to separate it from impurities ; reduces a body of material to its most important ideas or elements
3. Makes a liquid pure by vaporizing and re-condensing it ; boils down a lengthy account to its central essence or key facts

Etymology: The word "distils" is simply the third-person singular present of "distil," so the story belongs to the verb. Its ancestor was Latin "dēstīllāre," built from "dē-," meaning "down," and "stīllāre," "to drip." The root "stīlla," a drop of liquid, may be a diminutive of "stīria," an icicle, so the core image is of something falling in drops. That dripping sense stayed close to the surface for centuries. In Late Middle English, "distillen" could mean to fall or trickle in drops, or to fill the eyes with tears, before it came to mean purifying a liquid through heating and condensing. The alchemists and medical practitioners who worked with the process gave the verb its technical sense, and the vapour-and-condense picture of the alembic became the standard one. The same Latin root gave Spanish "destilar," Italian "distillare," and French "distiller," all of which keep the sense of dripping or trickling alongside the chemical one.

Synonyms: refines, extracts, purifies, condenses

Antonyms: dilutes, adulterates