Translingual

Proper noun

Absinthium n

1. (obsolete) A taxonomic genus within the family Asteraceae – almost entirely subsumed into Artemisia, especially Artemisia sect. Absinthium.

English

Noun

absinthium ‎(uncountable)

1. (now rare) The common wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), an intensely bitter herb used in the production of absinthe and vermouth, and as a tonic. [First attested around 1150 to 1350.]^[1]
2. The dried leaves and flowering tops of the wormwood plant; absinthe oil.^[2]

Anagrams

• bismuthian

References

1. ↑ Brown, Lesley, editor (1933) The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7, published 2003, page 9
2. ↑ Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], ISBN 0-87779-101-5), page 5

Latin

Alternative forms

• apsinthium

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον ‎(apsínthion, “wormwood”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈpsin.tʰi.um/, [aˈpsɪn.tʰi.ũ]

Noun

absinthium n ‎(genitive absinthiī or absinthī); second declension

1. wormwood
2. an infusion of wormwood sometimes masked with honey due to its bitter taste
3. (figuratively) something which is bitter but wholesome
   • c. 95 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 3.1.5

     Sed nos veremur ne parum hic liber mellis et absinthii multum habere videatur

     But I fear that this book will have too little sweetness and too much wormwood.

4. accusative singular of absinthium
5. vocative singular of absinthium

Inflection

Second declension.

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• English: absinthe
• → Georgian: აბზინდა ‎(abzinda)
• Dalmatian: ascianz
• French: absinthe
• Irish: apsaint
• Italian: assenzio
• Portuguese: sintro, absíntio, absinto (via French)
• Spanish: absintio, ajenjo

References

• absinthium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ABSINTHIUM in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• absinthium in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers