HIPPOCRAS

hippocras, an old medicinal drink or cordial, made of wine mixed with spices--such as cinnamon, ginger and sugar--and strained through woollen cloths. the early spelling usual in english was _ipocras_, or _ypocras_. the word is an adaptation of the med. lat. _vinum hippocraticum_, or wine of hippocrates, so called, not because it was supposed to be a receipt of the physician, but from an apothecary's name for a strainer or sieve, "hippocrates' sleeve" (see w. w. skeat, _chaucer_, note to the _merchant's tale_).