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Kahala, in Arabic, means staining. From that the sublimate of antimony that was used to darken eyelids was named kohl. The prefix "al" is simply the arabic definite article - the.

The meaning of "al kohl" gradually changed to refer to anything that was obtained through the process of sublimation and thence to the essential spirit of a substance - including liquor. The spelling changed when the word was adopted into the English language.

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