ambrosia

plural ambrosias · plural rare ambrosiae

1. GreekRomancountableuncountablehuman sciencesThe food of the gods, thought to confer immortality.

   He had a most intense admiration of female loveliness, and looked upon woman as a kind of super-angelic being, whose food should be the ambrosiæ and nectar of the gods, and whose garments the spotless white of vestal purity.

   1845 November, Caroline Lee Hentz, “The Mysterious Reticule”, in Sarah J[osepha] Hale, Morton M’Michael, Louis A[ntoine] Godey, editors, Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book, volume XXXI, number 16, Philadelphia, Pa.: Louis A. Godey, […], page 202, column 1

2. GreekRomancountableuncountablehuman sciencesThe anointing-oil of the gods.
3. countableuncountableAny food with an especially delicious flavour or fragrance.
4. countableuncountableAnything delightfully sweet and pleasing.

   A favorite. It’s refreshing now and will evolve into golden ambrosia with age. […] The dessert wines of the Loire Valley and AJsace also deserve recognition. From the Anjou area of the Loire come the ambrosiae of Savennières, Bonnezeaux, and Quarts de Chaume.

   2001, Jamal A. Rayyis, Food & Wine Magazine’s Wine Guide 2002, New York, N.Y.: American Express Publishing Corporation, →ISBN, pages 112 and 278

5. countableuncountableAn annual herb historically used medicinally and in cooking, Dysphania botrys.
6. countableuncountableA mixture of nectar and pollen prepared by worker bees and fed to larvae.
7. countableuncountableAny fungus of a number of species that insects such as ambrosia beetles carry as symbionts, "farming" them on poor-quality food such as wood, where they grow, providing food for the insect.
8. countableuncountableA dessert originating in the Southern United States made of shredded coconuts and tropical fruits such as pineapples and oranges; some recipes also include ingredients such as marshmallow and cream.
9. countableuncountableA plant of the genus Ambrosia.

   Section G: The Collector’s corner, Mrs. J. R. Cowan, blue, for her ambrosiae.

   1943 July 11, Julia Durham, “Social and Personal: Blue Ribbons Awarded 22 Exhibitors; Red Ribbons To 13 In Flower Show”, in Kentucky Advocate, volume LXXVIII, number 3, Danville, Ky., page three

   5 more examples

   Their disease does not appear before August. At this time, throughout the entire United States one could say, not only in every field, in every meadow and in every forest, but even in the largest cities, there blooms the ambrosiæ, which are commonly known as ragweed; […]

   1905 June, W[illia]m [Philipps] Dunbar, “An Address on the Cause and Treatment of Hay-Fever”, in H[anau] W[olf] Loeb, editor, Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, volume XIV, number 2, St. Louis, Mo.: Jones H. Parker, […], page 315

   Fig. 1.—Spiculated pollens of ragweeds (ambrosias) low in protein. […] In the cocklebur (Xanthium americanum) and the rough wild elder (Iva ciliata), the spicules are shorter, being 0.7 and 0.5 microns, and the reaction is proportionately less active than with the ragweeds (ambrosias). […] While the grass pollens have so light a coat that they are frequently crushed in the ordinary process of mounting, the ragweed (ambrosias) pollen grains resist pressure between two glass slides carried to the point of crushing the glass.

   1916 September 16, W[illiam] Scheppegrell, “Direct and Indirect Hay-Fever: Preliminary Report of the Research Department of the American Hay-Fever-Prevention Association on the Etiology of Hay-Fever”, in George H[enry] Simmons, editor, The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume LXVII, number 12, Chicago, Ill.: American Medical Association, pages 862–863

   Dr. William Scheppergrell,^([sic – meaning Scheppegrell]) in Public Health Reports, states that the common and giant ragweeds (ambrosias), which are the principal causes of hay fever in the Eastern States, do not grow so abundantly in the West, and that the pollens of other plants, notably the wormwoods (artemisias), are the exciting causes of hay fever in the Pacific and Mountain States. […] [quoting Scheppegrell] The most important hay-fever weeds of the Pacific and Mountain States, and which give the most severe reaction, are the wormwoods (artemisias). While their pollen is not produced in the same profusion as that of the ragweeds (ambrosias), they give a marked hay-fever reaction which in some species is five times as active as that of the ragweed (ambrosia).

   1917 September, “Eastern and Western Hay Fever Plants”, in The Druggists Circular: A Practical Journal of Pharmacy and General Business Organ for Druggists, volume LXI, number 9 (whole 729), New York, N.Y.: The Druggists Circular, […], page 448, columns 1–2

   Once again there can be heard throughout the eastern part of the country the stacatto^([sic]) sneezing, the hacking cough and the stuffy head of the hay fever patient, for ragweed season is upon us. As it does each year, about the fifteenth of August, plants of the group called ambrosiae spread their pollens to the wind and the misery begins.

   1967 August 17, Paul Key, “Here’s to Health: Help Available for Hay Feverites”, in The Daily Register, volume 90, number 37, Red Bank, N.J., page 12

   The ambrosias [ragweeds] are not only very harmful competitors of plants, but they also are dangerous vectors of allergic illnesses of man.

   1974, E. M. Shumakov, G. V. Gusev, N. S. Fedorinchik, editors, Biological Agents for Plant Protection, Moscow: "Kolos", →OCLC, page 307

   Synonyms: ragweed