potation

From Middle English potacion, from Old French potacion, from Latin pōtātiō.

potation (countable and uncountable, plural potations)

1. (often in the plural) The act of drinking.
2. A drink, especially an alcoholic beverage.

• 1819, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe,

  Perhaps his nocturnal potations, prevented him from recognising accents which were tolerably familiar to him.

• 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume IV, London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book i:

  For as this is the liquor of modern historians, nay, perhaps their muse, if we may believe the opinion of Butler, who attributes inspiration to ale, it ought likewise to be the potation of their readers, since every book ought to be read with the same spirit and in the same manner as it is writ.

• optation