potion

[poh-shuh n] /ˈpoʊ ʃən/

noun

a drink or draft, especially one having or reputed to have medicinal, poisonous, or magical powers:

a love potion; a sleeping potion.

Origin

1300-50; Middle English pocion < Latin pōtiōn- (stem of pōtiō) a drinking, equivalent to pōt(us), variant of pōtātus, past participle of pōtāre to drink + -iōn- -ion; replacing Middle English pocioun < Anglo-French < Latin, as above

Can be confused

portion, potion.

Synonyms

elixir, brew, concoction, philter.

Examples from the web for potion

The potion he mistakenly believes will do the trick is rhino horn, and he is prepared to pay good money for that.
Locate the value-added potion of your business here, and you will be unaffected by the export quota.
Almost every body part is used to make some kind of potion.
Submit your secret potion and vote on other remedies after the jump.
When a magic potion is served round, it is done in a yuppie bar.
Some promoters are already treating it as the next magic potion for fighting obesity.
And guests at the ball are served oranges laced with an amnesia-causing potion.
But there's no magic potion to banish the film's awkwardness or make it more than a string of intermittent acting highlights.
The tragedy here is that a magic potion has unleashed something best left repressed.
The more he thinks of it, however, the less he is inclined to drink the potion.

British Dictionary definitions for potion

potion

/ˈpəʊʃən/

noun

a drink, esp of medicine, poison, or some supposedly magic beverage

a rare word for beverage

Word Origin

C13: via Old French from Latin pōtiō a drink, especially a poisonous one, from pōtāre to drink

Word Origin and History for potion

c.1300, pocioun "medicinal drink," from Old French pocion "potion, draught, medicine" (12c.), from Latin potionem (nominative potio) "a potion, a drinking," also "poisonous draught, magic potion," from potus, irregular past participle of potare "to drink," from PIE root *po(i)- "to drink" (cf. Sanskrit pati "drinks," panam "beverage;" Greek pinein "to drink," poton "that which one drinks," potos "drinking bout;" Old Church Slavonic piti "to drink," pivo "beverage"). Potus as a past participle adjective in Latin meant "drunken."

potion in Medicine

potion po·tion (pō'shən)
n.
A liquid medicinal dose or drink.