Etymology

bezoar

be·zoar
B3E1Z10O1A1R1

Today it means: A mass, usually of hair or undigested vegetable matter, found in a human or animal's intestines, similar to a hairball. Full definition →

Spanish bezoar ← French bézoard ← Arabic بَازَهْر
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Middle Persian · derived frompʾtzhl“bezoar, antidote”
  2. Arabic · derived fromبَازَهْر
  3. French · borrowed frombézoard
  4. Spanish · borrowed frombezoar
  5. English todaybezoar

Borrowed from Spanish bezoar and/or French bézoard, based on Arabic بَازَهْر (bāzahr), from Middle Persian pʾtzhl (pādzahr, “bezoar, antidote”), from a compound of words meaning “to protect” and “poison” (literally “killing thing”), thus a bezoar was “that which protects against poison”. In ancient times, bezoars from animals were ground up and ingested as remedies for various maladies and as antidotes to poisons.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.