# Quick Q: Is drinking alcohol "ethyl alcohol" or "ethanol" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426 "2005-09-13T14:46:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/1 "2005-09-13T14:46:38Z")
Or are those two words for the same stuff? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/2 "2005-09-13T15:00:40Z")
They are the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/3 "2005-09-13T15:00:49Z")
Yes. ethanol = ethyl alcohol ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/4 "2005-09-13T15:01:40Z")
Ethanol and ethyl alcohol are the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/5 "2005-09-13T15:08:45Z")
Ethanol is the newer, more accepted, systematic term. Similarly, “isopropyl alcohol” is more properly termed “isopropanol.” ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/6 "2005-09-13T15:53:32Z")
Actually, it’s properly named “2-propanol,” but commerce won’t give up those trivial names. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/7 "2005-09-13T20:00:23Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Actually, it’s properly named “2-propanol,” but commerce won’t give up those trivial names. Nor, in my experience, will chemists. You ever heard anyone talk about “methanoic acid”? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/8 "2005-09-13T20:06:35Z")
There is a happy lack of consistency in chemistry and physics, and tradition gets a big boost. That’s why we still have \* formaldehyde\* when a more rational world would have _methanal_. Twenty years ago I helped out on a Defects in the Solid State meeting at which they hoped top standardize the names of defects in ionic crystals. One single type of defect could have at least four different names, and maybe more. So they got together and bitched about it for days, and at the end, nothing was decided. You still have the same defect being called an **M[sup]-[/sup] Center** or an **F[sub]2[/sub][sup]-[/sup0 Center** or an **M’ Center** or an \*\*F[sub]2[/sub]’ center \*\* or… ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/9 "2005-09-14T01:02:44Z")
I hope they standardize on **F2[sup]-[/sup0 Center**. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/10 "2005-09-14T11:20:55Z")
> [@](#): > > I hope they standardize on F2[sup]-[/sup0 Center. You see where this kind of thing can lead? Damned coding. **F[sub]2[/sub][sup]-[/sup]** Center. And if you look it up using computerized search, you have to remember to include “Centre” for all the British researchers. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/11 "2005-09-14T11:26:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You see where this kind of thing can lead? > > Damned coding. > > **F[sub]2[/sub][sup]-[/sup]** Center. > > And if you look it up using computerized search, you have to remember to include “Centre” for all the British researchers. So as you’re aware, you screwed it all up again. 🙂 Though I’m not sure how or why - it looks fine to me. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/12 "2005-09-14T11:27:40Z")
Well, now, that’s funny. I’m in Firefox, and your hyphen was not superscripted - instead, there was a big ol’ sup tag in brackets for all the world to see. But it worked inside a quote box. BBCode is insane. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/13 "2005-09-14T15:01:32Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > Is drinking alcohol “ethyl alcohol” or “ethanol”. Or are those two words for the same stuff? The question has been answered. But it should be noted that there’s a decidedly non-drinkable version of ethanol commonly known as “denatured” alcohol. It has been made poisonous (often by the addition of some methanol, which leads to the alternate name “methylated spirits”) and thus is not subject to liquor taxes. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-q-is-drinking-alcohol-ethyl-alcohol-or-ethanol/321426/14 "2005-09-14T15:39:50Z")
> [@](#): > > The question has been answered. But it should be noted that there’s a decidedly non-drinkable version of ethanol commonly known as “denatured” alcohol. It has been made poisonous (often by the addition of some methanol, which leads to the alternate name “methylated spirits”) and thus is not subject to liquor taxes. During Prohibition it seemed as if everyone in my home town was making bathtub liquor. But they had big operations, too. One chemical company bought huge amounts of legal Denatured Alcohol and distilled out the ethanol, which they sold as drinkable liquor in New York City. Inventive folks. On the flip side, when I was a student in Salt Lake City Utah, if we anted absolute ethanol (not denatured with anything -=- because sometimes it makes a big difference) you had to sign it out from the stock room – one of the few things you needed supervision to go and get. And the bottles had liquor tax seals on top.