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by   on June 22nd, 2009

 

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What is the etymology of the word "absinthe?"

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Answers. 3 helpful answers below.

  • by iwnit on June 24th, 2009

    iwnit

    "The French word absinthe can refer either to the alcoholic beverage or, less commonly, to the actual wormwood plant (grande absinthe being Artemisia absinthium, and petite absinthe being Artemisia pontica). The Latin name artemisia comes from Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess of forests and hills. Absinthe is derived from the Latin absinthium, which in turn is a stylization of the Greek αψίνθιον (apsínthion), for wormwood.

    The use of Artemisia absinthium in a drink is attested in Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura (I 936–950), where Lucretius indicates that a drink containing wormwood is given as medicine to children in a cup with honey on the brim to make it drinkable. This was a metaphor for the presentation of complex ideas in poetic form.

    Some claim that the word means “undrinkable” in Greek, but it may instead be linked to the Persian root spand or aspand, or the variant esfand, which meant Peganum harmala, also called Syrian Rue — though it is not actually a variety of rue, another famously bitter herb.

    That Artemisia absinthium was commonly burned as a protective offering may suggest that its origins lie in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *spend, meaning “to perform a ritual” or “make an offering.” Whether the word was a borrowing from Persian into Greek, or from a common ancestor of both, is unclear."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe

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  • by bk12321 on June 22nd, 2009

    bk12321

    quoting etymonline.com

    "alcoholic liqueur distilled from wine mixed with wormwood, 1842, from Fr., "essence of wormwood," from Mod.L. (Linnaeus) name for the plant (Artemisia Absinthium), from L. absinthum, from Gk. apsinthion, perhaps from Persian (cf. Pers. aspand, of the same meaning). The plant so called in Eng. from 1612."

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  • by schmee2369 on June 23rd, 2009

    schmee2369

    THEY MADE IT LEGAL IN MY STATE!!!! WHOOOOOO!!!
    They just told us that at the liquor store!!!
    Whoo...time to hallucinate while being drunk! lmao.

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