asafoetida
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Medieval Latin asafoetida, from Persian ازا / آزا (azâ, âzâ, “mastic”) + Latin foetida, feminine of foetidus (“bad-smelling”).
Pronunciation
Noun
asafoetida (usually uncountable, plural asafoetidas)
- A resinous gum from the stem and roots of Ferula species such as Ferula foetida and Ferula assa-foetida, having a strong, unpleasant smell, with culinary and medical uses. [from 14th c.]
- Synonyms: asant, hing, devil's dung, stinking gum
- 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section II:
- Nigh Whormoot are Duzgun, Laztan-De, and other Townes, where is got the best Assa-Fætida through all the Orient: the tree is like our brier in height, the leaves resemble Fig leaves, the root the Radish: the vertue had need be much, it stincks so odiously.
- 1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183:
- CHEWING-BALLS, a kind of balls made of aſafœtida, liver of antimony, bay-wood, juniper-wood, and pellitory of Spain; which being dried in the ſun, and wrapped in a linen-cloth, are tied to the bit of the bridle for the horſe to chew: they create an appetite; and it is ſaid, that balls of Venice treacle may be uſed in the ſame manner with good ſucceſs.
- 1842, Robley Dunglison, “Of the Neuroses”, in The Practice of Medicine; or, A Treatise on Special Pathology and Therapeutics. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, book VI (Diseases of the Nervous System), page 280:
- The smell, too, is often perverted—Parosmia. The author was formerly acquainted with a lady, who scented her snuff with the tincture of assafœtida.
- 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 54:
- half-a-dozen huge bread pills, dipped in a solution of aloes or cinnamon water, flavoured with assafœtida, which in the case of the dyspeptic rich often suffice [...].
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 155:
- For black magic, assafœtida, garlic, dragon's blood, sulphur, and such-like vile-smelling concoctions were used.
- 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man In Deptford:
- The letter she sent me stank of assafoetida or devil’s dung. I was charmed.
Translations
resinous gum from wild fennel
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Further reading
asafoetida on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
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