fusel oil

English

Etymology

The word "fusel" comes from German Fusel, which is used to refer to low-quality alcoholic beverages in general, especially to inferior wines and spirits distilled with inadequate equipment.

Noun

fusel oil (plural fusel oils)

1. A mixture of several higher-order alcohols (alcohols with more than two carbon atoms) formed as byproduct in the normal fermentation process. An excessive concentration, as in low-quality moonshine, causes unpleasant taste.
   • 1959, Ian Fleming, chapter 11, in Goldfinger:

     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.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 849:

     many simply blamed […] the Doosra's known enthusiasms for opium, ganja, and any number of local fusel oils, singly or combined, named and nameless.

Synonyms

• fusel alcohol
• potato oil

Translations

byproduct of alcoholic fermentation

• Dutch: foezelolie f
• Finnish: sikunaöljy
• Polish: fuzel (pl) m, niedogon m
• Russian: сиву́шное ма́сло n (sivúšnoje máslo)
• Spanish: aceite de fusel m
• Swedish: finkelolja c, finkel (sv) c

Anagrams

• fuel oils