asafoetida

plural asafoetidas · alternative asafetida · alternative asfetida · alternative dated assafetida · alternative dated assa-fetida · alternative assafoetida · alternative assa-fœtida

1. uncountableusuallyA resinous gum from the stem and roots of Ferula species such as Ferula foetida and Ferula assa-foetida, having a strong, unpleasant smell, with culinary and medical uses.First known use 14th c.

   The letter she sent me stank of assafoetida or devil’s dung. I was charmed.

   1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man In Deptford

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   Nigh Whormoot are Duzgun, Laztan-De, and other Townes, where is got the best Assa-Fætida through all the Orient: the tree is like our brier in height, the leaves resemble Fig leaves, the root the Radish: the vertue had need be much, it stincks so odiously.

   1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section II

   CHEWING-BALLS, a kind of balls made of aſafœtida, liver of antimony, bay-wood, juniper-wood, and pellitory of Spain; which being dried in the ſun, and wrapped in a linen-cloth, are tied to the bit of the bridle for the horſe to chew: they create an appetite; and it is ſaid, that balls of Venice treacle may be uſed in the ſame manner with good ſucceſs.

   1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183

   The smell, too, is often perverted—Parosmia. The author was formerly acquainted with a lady, who scented her snuff with the tincture of assafœtida.

   1842, Robley Dunglison, “Of the Neuroses”, in The Practice of Medicine; or, A Treatise on Special Pathology and Therapeutics. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, book VI (Diseases of the Nervous System), page 280

   half-a-dozen huge bread pills, dipped in a solution of aloes or cinnamon water, flavoured with assafœtida, which in the case of the dyspeptic rich often suffice [...].

   1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 54

   For black magic, assafœtida, garlic, dragon's blood, sulphur, and such-like vile-smelling concoctions were used.

   1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 155

   Synonyms: asant, hing, devil's dung, stinking gum