Ever wonder what the acronym ETOH stands for? Over the ages people have refereed to alcohol in all kinds of ways. like booze, ethanol, hooch and firewater just to name a few. In the health industry , ETOH stands for alcohol. I got to wondering why this was true. One of the reasons is it is easier to write etoh than alcohol. ETOH actually is an abbreviation for ethanol, the base ingredient of alcoholic beverages. After some research I am still not clear as to the history or idea behind it. It occurred to me that maybe there were times when it was better to disguise the word alcohol from family or people who did not need to know. And maybe it was to give alcohol, which comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes and strengths, a generic term to refer to alcohol in its pure chemical essence. In any case when you see the term ETOH you can be sure they are talking about the kind of alcohol you drink.