subs. phr. (old cant).—That is, ‘drinkable gold’; see quots.

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  1644.  QUARLES, Judgment and Mercy, 86. Poverty … is a sickness very catching … The best cordial is AURUM POTABILE.

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  1652.  ASHMOLE, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 442.

        And then the golden oyle called AURUM-POTABILE,
A medicine most mervelous to preserve mans health.

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  1653.  EVELYN, Diary, 27 June. Monsr. Roupel sent me a small phial of his AURUM POTABILE, with a letter shewing the way of administering it and ye stupendous cures it hath done at Paris.

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  1678.  E. PHILLIPS, The New World of Words, s.v. AURUM POTABILE,… a medicine made of the body of gold it self, totally reduced, without corrosive, into a blood-red, gummie or hony-like substance.

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  1708.  KERSEY, Dictionary, s.v. AURUM POTABILE. Gold made liquid, or fit to be drunk; or some rich Cordial Liquor, with pieces of Leaf-gold in it.

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