eryngo

plural eryngos · plural eryngoes · alternative eringo

1. countableobsoleteuncountableThe root of sea holly, Eryngium maritimum, formerly candied and taken as confectionery and held to have aphrodisiac properties.

   Let the skie raine Potatoes: let it thunder, to the tune of Greene-ſleeues, haile-kiſſing Comfits, and ſnovv Eringoes: […]

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 59, column 1

2. countableuncountableAny other plant of the same genus, Eryngium.

   For some ordinary broths made of Eringos or Sea-Holme, and Burstwort, which twice or thrice I have swallowed downe at the request of some Ladies, who, more kindely then my disease is unkind, offred me the moity of theirs, have equally seemed unto me as easie to take as unprofitable in operation.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, III.13