Nevertheless there are contexts in which we could envisage a possible world (write a science fiction novel) in which being found in rivers and lakes and the sea, assuaging thirst and sustaining life was more important than the chemical composition and so XYZ would be the counterpart of H2O.
From Hell, the rich man looks up and he sees Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, and he says, Abraham, can you send Lazarus so he can put something wet, just to assuage the thirst that I'm feeling.
It graces Helvellyn (950m) 100m or so below the summit and has long assuaged the thirsts of shepherds and fell runners.
Still, Shame's sex-addict protagonist, Brandon, played by Michael Fassbender, is evidently paralysed by some gigantic inner thirst he cannot assuage, no matter how many orgasms he throws at the problem.
But in truth, not satisfied with these, which of course excite a thirst for knowing without in any way assuaging it, I searched finally with keen application for that most immense ocean of the sciences and from that ocean all the streams flowing most abundantly in different directions.
Indeed [I was] not so carried away by vainglorious folly that I, not thinking about the chains of my poverty, supposed that I could drink up even the single streamlet of any discipline, but when I was to have chosen some stream before the rest, by whose sweetest dew the thirst of my natural talents would be assuaged for the future, I longed to discern everything by experience.
Yet strange though it seems to lesser mortals, the supreme thirst for power that makes someone wish to lead their country is not easily assuaged.
This did not assuage Mr. Seaton.
His thirst was overpowering.
