poto-, pot- +

A system of determining the rate of a leafy plant's transpiration by measuring its water uptake.

An excessive or abnormal revulsion of drinking alcoholic beverages: Beverly's parents had a terrible car accident once because they had had too many glasses of wine that evening, and this very tragic occurrence caused her to be overwrought with potophobia and from then on she only had nonalcoholic, or non-fermented, drinks.

The goddess of drinking.

1. Food poisoning, erroneously believed to be the result of ptomaine ingestion. It is no longer in scientific use.
2. Etymology: Via French from Italian ptomaina; from Greek ptōma, "fallen body, corpse" and Greek piptein, "to fall".

It was once thought that food poisoning was a result of bacterial toxins, but this has been rejected by scientists.

The identification of certain alkaloidal substances, or ptomaines, is of great interest to toxicologists. In 1881, the discovery of Professor Selmi as to the formation of poisonous alkaloids, which he calls ptomaïnes, in the human body after death. In 1884, these "cadaveric" alkaloids, or "ptomaines" as they have also been called. In 1891, the chemical ferments produced in the system, the albumoses or ptomaines which may exercise so disastrous an influence.

Italian ptomaina, erroneously formed by Professor Selmi of Bologna, from Greek fallen, "body, corpse". Professor Selmi's first paper in Annali di Chimica (1876), announced the body as "la potomaina o prima alcaloide dei cadaveri"; but this was partly corrected in his work of 1878 to ptomaina. It is to be regretted that the full correction to ptomatine was not made at its reception into English.

Directly from Latin: to refresh with warm drinks.

1. Not suitable for drinking: The old coffee is unpotable because it was made last week and won't be tasty anymore!
2. Not safe for, or not fit for, drinking: The water from the stream is unpotable and because it can contain unhealthy germs.