absinthium

See also: Absinthium

English

Etymology

From Middle English absinthium, from Latin absinthium, from Ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον (apsínthion). Doublet of absinthe.

Pronunciation
  • (US) IPA(key): /æbˈsɪn.θi.m̩/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

absinthium (uncountable)

  1. (now rare) 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.[2]
  3. absinthe oil

Translations
Artemisia absinthium — see wormwood
absinthe oil — see absinthe oil

References
  1. Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “absinthium”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9.
  2. Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN), page 5

Anagrams

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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. 35 CE – 100 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.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative absinthium absinthia
Genitive absinthiī
absinthī1		 absinthiōrum
Dative absinthiō absinthiīs
Accusative absinthium absinthia
Ablative absinthiō absinthiīs
Vocative absinthium absinthia

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

Descendants
  • Dalmatian:
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: assenzio
      • → Maltese: assenzju
  • Padanian:
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Aragonese: ixenzo, xenzo, axenz, asensio
      Ribagorçan: xento, ixenso, asenso
    • Occitan: aussent, aissent
      Gascon: eishent
      Provençal: ensens, insens, issens
      Vivaro-Alpine: uissent
  • Ibero-Romance:
Borrowings

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 with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • “absinthium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
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