English

Noun

paetum

1. (obsolete) corruption of the Brazilian petum i.e. tobacco

   At these spectacles and everywhere else, the English are constantly smoking the Nicotian weed which in America is called Tobaca - others call it Paetum - and generally in this manner: they have pipes on purpose made of clay, into the farther end of which they put the herb, so dry that it may be rubbed into powder, and lighting it, they draw the smoke into their mouths, which they puff out again through their nostrils, like funnels, along with it plenty of phlegm and defluxion from the head.

   • 1598, Paul Hentzner, Travels in England [Rye], quoted in Wilson

References

• 1949, John Dover Wilson (compiler), Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes

Latin

Adjective

paetum

1. nominative neuter singular of paetus