Oxymel

Oxymel (from Latin, meaning 'acid and honey', from Ancient Greek ὀξύς, meaning 'acid', and μέλι, meaning 'honey') is a mixture of honey and vinegar, used as a medicine.

Its name is often found in Renaissance (and later) pharmacopoeiae in Late Latin form as either a countable or uncountable noun. As a countable noun, it is spelled variously as (singular) oxymellus and oxymellis, and plural oxymeli and oxymelli.

Cato the Elder describes it thus:

Oxymelli. Fit vinum ex aceto & melle quod oxymel vocaverunt voce Graecanica. Nam oξ(?) dicitur Graecis acetu & μίλ mel. Fit autem oxymel hoc modo. Mellis decem librae cum aceti heminis quinque, haec decies subserve faciunt atque ita sinunt inveterare. Themison summus autor damnavit oxymel & hydromel. Est autem hydromel vinum ex aquae & melle confectum, unde & nome. Celebrant autores ex omphacomel, quod fit ex uvae semiacerbae succo & melle fortiter trite unde & nome: Graec enim όμφας dicitur uvae acerbae, & όμφαφκας vocant uvas & fructus immaturus. Hinc omphalicium oleum dictum, quod ex olivis acerbis quas δίγρας(?) vocant, fit: & omphacium ex uva, quod vulgo agreste nominitant.

In the 1593 work Enchiridion chirurgicum, oxymel was recommended as part of a treatment for ophthalmia.

Because Latin was (and is) still used widely in medical prescriptions, it was still known by this name in Victorian times:

℞: Plumbi Acetatis. gr. j. Solve in Aquae Rosae, 3j. et adde Oxymellis Simplicis 3j.; Tinct. Opii, ?v.; Tinct. Digitalis. ♏x. Fiat Haustus, quartis vel sextis horis sumendus.

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