fusel oil en · NOUN
Etymology
Partial calque of German Fuselöl, from Fusel, referring to low-quality alcoholic beverages in general, especially to inferior wines and spirits distilled with inadequate equipment.
Meanings
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A mixture of several higher-order alcohols (having more than two carbon atoms) formed as byproduct in the normal fermentation process, captured as part of the tailings in distillation. An excessive concentration, as in low-quality moonshine, causes unpleasant taste.
As for drinking, I am something of a chemist and I have yet to find a liquor that is free from traces of a number of poisons, some of them deadly, such as fusel oil, acetic acid, ethylacetate, acetaldehyde and furfurol.
1959, Ian Fleming, chapter 11, in Goldfinger:[…] and many simply blamed on the Doosra's known enthusiasms for opium, ganja, and any number of local fusel oils, singly or combined, named and nameless.
2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Against the Day”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 756:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| fusel oils | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Synonyms
fusel alcohol · fuselol · potato oil · fusel
Translations (11)
fr fusel (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · pl fuzel (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · de Fuselöl (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · ru сиву́шное ма́сло (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · sv finkel (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · pl niedogon (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · sv finkelolja (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · fi sikunaöljy (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · es aceite de fusel (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · tr füzel yağı (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation) · nl foezelolie (byproduct of alcoholic fermentation)