Emily Dickinson Lexicon

E-LIX'IR, n. [Fr. Sp. and Port. elixir; It. elisire; from L. elixus, elixio, lixo, lix, or as others alledge, it is from the Arabic al-ecsir, chimistry.]

1. In medicine, a tincture with more than one base. In modern pharmacy, elixirs are called compound tinctures. The mere addition of what is culled an adjuvans, or of a corrigens, to a single base, does not make an elixir.
2. A liquor for transmuting metals into gold. Donne.
3. Quintessence; refined spirit. South.
4. Any cordial; that substance which invigorates. Milton.