nectar: [16] Nectar was originally the drink of the Greek gods, but soon after the word’s arrival in English it was being used metaphorically for any ‘delicious drink’. It comes via Latin nectar from Greek néktar, and it has been speculated that this may have been derived from the base *nek- ‘kill’ (source also of English necromancy), as some sort of allusion to the ‘immortality’ of the gods. Nectarine [17], the name of a sort of peach based on the now disused adjective nectarine ‘like nectar’, was probably inspired by German nektarpfirsich ‘nectar-peach’.
nectar (n.)
1550s, from Latin nectar, from Greek nektar, name of the drink of the gods, which is said to be a compound of nek- "death" (see necro-) + -tar "overcoming," from PIE *tere- (2) "to cross over, pass through, overcome" (see through). Meaning "sweet liquid in flowers" first recorded c. 1600.
