词源: 'fine powder, liquid made by a purifying process', from Old Spanish [西班牙语], from Arabic [阿拉伯语] al-kuhul 'the powdered 锑', a powder used as an eyeliner [眼线]. 锑化合物在古代就用作化妆品，金属锑在古代也有记载，但那时却被误认为是铅。

Ball-and-stick model of an alcohol molecule (R3COH). The red and white balls represent the hydroxyl group (-OH). The three "R's" stand for carbon substituents [取代基,取代有机化合物中氢原子的基团] or hydrogen atoms.

The term alcohol originally referred to the primary alcohol ethanol (=ethyl alcohol) [乙醇], which is used as a drug and is the main alcohol present in alcoholic beverages [含酒精的饮料].

An important class of alcohols, of which methanol [甲醇,木酒精] and ethanol are the simplest members, includes all compounds for which the general formula is CnH2n+1OH. 醇是有机化合物的一大类。有伯醇、仲醇、叔醇，但没有季醇。

The meaning of alcohol was extended to distilled substances in general, and then narrowed to ethanol, when "spirits" was a synonym for hard liquor. 烈酒+硬菜:-)

Methanol is the most common industrial alcohol, with about 12 million tons/year produced in 1980. The combined capacity of the other alcohols is about the same, distributed roughly equally.

Simple alcohols are found widely in nature. Ethanol is the most prominent [显眼的] because it is the product of fermentation [发酵jiào], a major energy-producing pathway [通道].

六级/考研单词: powder, liquid, liner, molecule, carbon, hydrogen, atom, beverage, compound, distil, synonym, liquor, million, prominent