[f. WOOD sb.1 + SPIRIT sb. 3, 21.]
1. Myth. A spirit or imaginary being, fabled to dwell in or haunt woods.
1845. [C. H. J. Anderson], Swedish Brothers, 4. The Nipen, or wood-spirit, was also said to haunt these woods.
1877. J. E. Carpenter, trans. Tiele’s Hist. Relig., 184. The wood-spirits, Lyeshie, bear most resemblance in conception and character to Pan and the Satyrs.
1911. W. W. Fowler, Relig. Exper. Roman People, x. 235. Diana was a wood-spirit, a tree-spirit.
2. Crude methyl alcohol obtained from wood by destructive distillation.
1842. in Ure, Revenue in Jeopardy (1843), 11. A sample of crude naphtha … the unrectified combustible liquid obtained from the distillation of wood,… imported from Scotland under the name of naphtha or wood-naphtha…. It is named in Chemistry wood-spirit or pyroxylic spirit.
1854. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 367. Wood-spirit is used to some extent … in place of alcohol, in spirit-lamps.
1887. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., IV. 751/1. Methylic alcohol,… more popularly known under the several names of pyroligneous spirit, pyroxylic spirit, wood spirit, wood alcohol, and wood naphtha.
