Liquor

From the Latin verb liquere, meaning to be fluid, two other Latin words arose: liquor, a noun, and liquidus, an adjective. In the early thirteenth century, English borrowed the Latin noun, liquor, initially using the word to refer to any liquid substance, be it vinegar, honey, blood, or wine. By the fourteenth century, however, the now dominant sense of liquor—namely, alcoholic beverage—began to emerge. Near the end of the fourteenth century, English also borrowed the related Latin adjective, liquidus, changing the spelling to liquid in the process. For the next three hundred years, until the early eighteenth century, liquid was used in English only as an adjective, that is, only in phrases such as liquid food or liquid honey; in fact, using the word liquid as a noun—as in, “He drank the liquid”—would have been as meaningless to a fifteenth-century Englishman as “She drank the hot” is to us.

A distilled alcoholic beverage.

(In pharmacy) a solution, usually aqueous, of a pure substance.

Solution consisting of a medication dissolved in water; alcoholic beverage.

When used in culinary contexts, this term typically refers to the liquid utilized for cooking, whether it be for a food item that has already been cooked, or for one that is soon to be cooked.