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Wormwood - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Wormwood : (noun)
1: any of several low composite herbs of the genera Artemisia
or Seriphidium
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Wormwood : \Worm"wood\, n. [AS. werm?d, akin to OHG. wermuota,
wormuota, G. wermuth, wermut; of uncertain origin.]
1. (Bot.) A composite plant ({Artemisia Absinthium), having
a bitter and slightly aromatic taste, formerly used as a
tonic and a vermifuge, and to protect woolen garments from
moths. It gives the peculiar flavor to the cordial called
absinthe. The volatile oil is a narcotic poison. The term
is often extended to other species of the same genus.
2. Anything very bitter or grievous; bitterness.
Lest there should be among you a root that beareth
gall and wormwood. --Deut. xxix.
18.
Roman wormwood (Bot.), an American weed ({Ambrosia
artemisi[ae]folia); hogweed.
Tree wormwood (Bot.), a species of Artemisia (probably
Artemisia variabilis) with woody stems.
Wormwood hare (Zo["o]l.), a variety of the common hare
({Lepus timidus); -- so named from its color.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Wormwood : Heb. la'anah, the Artemisia absinthium of botanists. It is noted
for its intense bitterness (Deut. 29:18; Prov. 5:4; Jer. 9:15;
Amos 5:7). It is a type of bitterness, affliction, remorse,
punitive suffering. In Amos 6:12 this Hebrew word is rendered
"hemlock" (R.V., "wormwood"). In the symbolical language of the
Apocalypse (Rev. 8:10, 11) a star is represented as falling on
the waters of the earth, causing the third part of the water to
turn wormwood.
The name by which the Greeks designated it, absinthion, means
"undrinkable." The absinthe of France is distilled from a
species of this plant. The "southernwood" or "old man,"
cultivated in cottage gardens on account of its fragrance, is
another species of it.
Based on Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [Bible_Dictionary]:
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Wormwood : Wormwood: The essence of absinthe, an emerald-green liqueur flavored with extracts of the wormwood plant, licorice and aromatic flavorings in a alcohol base. Absinthe was manufactured,
commercialized and popularized in France in the late 1700s by Henri-Louis Pernod. It became an extremely popular and addictive drink. Among the famous figures who made absinthe a symbol of decadence
were the writer Oscar Wilde, the poet Charles Baudelaire, and the artists Edouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso.
The first important medical research on absinthe was initiated in 1864 by a psychiatrist, Valentin Jacques Joseph Magnan, who exposed a veritable Noah's arkful of animals to wormwood oil and
alcohol. He put cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs under an individual glass case next to a saucer of either wormwood oil or alcohol. The animals that breathed the alcohol fumes became drunk while those
that inhaled the vapors of wormwood had epileptic seizures, reported Dr. Magnan in the medical journal The Lancet.
Prolonged drinking of absinthe causes convulsions, blindness, hallucinations, and mental deterioration. Absinthe has been banned but something of its taste is still available in such drinks as ouzo
in Greece and in France, pastis, long considered "the mother's milk of Provence."
Based on Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [Bible_Dictionary]:
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