Notes

Absinthion

Absinthion

Absinthium vulgare

Absinthium vulgare
Artemisia absinthium L.
Ancient Greek: apsinthion
English: wormwood

absinthe

Absynthium, Wormwood. “The derivation of which Word according to the Authors of the Cambridge Dictionary is [from the Greek for undrinkable]; Wormwood does indeed make none of the pleasantest Drinkables, but in a Fit of the Cholic, there’s nothing so relieving as a Glass of Wormwood wine.” Ozell continues with a story about friends owho made wormwood-wine from a recipe titled “Alsem Wine,” a word they did not understand, but knew it was not Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, or French. Ozell informed them that the word was Low Dutch for wormwood. “Upon which they said I had hit right, and, for my Explanation, gave me half a Dozen Bottles. See what it is to have learnt Dutch!”

absinthe, au contraire de pinthe

Il paroît que Rabelais dérive ce mot de Πενεϊν bibere.

absinthe

« Il paroît, dit de Marsy, que Rabelais dérive ce mot de πινζἱν [?], bibere. » Mais le mot grec ἀψίνθιον, d’où vient le Latin absynthium, absinthe, doit avoir une étymologie bien différente, car il nous paroît composé d’ἃψ ou ἃψιζ, et ἃνθοζ, fleur.

Absynth

[greek], Scapula, Lexicon Gr.-Lat. (1580). “Apsinthia taetra” (Lucr. i. 936).

absynthe

« Ἀπίνθιον dictum, id est quod nemo bibere potest. » (Ch. Estienne). « Apinthion, c’est-à-dire non beuvable, pour ce qu’on n’en peut boyre aucunement à raison de l’amertume excessive qui est en elle. » (Fuchs.) De α et πίνθιον, impotable, dit aussi le Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1752). Lémery, par contre, donne comme étymologie α priv. et ψίνθοζ, delectatio, plante amère et désagréable. « Absinthii genera plura sunt », dit Pline, XXVII, 28 : Santonicum [Artemisia santonica, L. ?]; ponticum [Artemisia pontica, L. ?]; italicum [Artemisia absinthium, L.]. (Paul Delaunay)

absinthe, artemisia

Absinthii genera plura sunt: Santonicum appellatur e Galliae civitate, Ponticum e Ponto, ubi pecora pinguescunt illo et ob id sine felle reperiuntur, neque aliud praestantius,multoque Italicum amarius, sed medulla Pontici dulcis. de usu eius convenit, herbae facillimae atque inter paucas utilissimae, praeterea sacris populi Romani celebratae peculiariter, siquidem Latinarum feriis quadrigae certant in Capitolio victorque absinthium bibit, credo, sanitatem praemio dari honorifice arbitratis maioribus. stomachum corroborat, et ob hoc sapor eius in vina transfertur, ut diximus. bibitur et decoctum aqua ac postea nocte et die refrigeratum sub divo, †decoctis sex drachmis foliorum cum ramis suis in caelestis aquae sextarii tribus, oportet et salem addi. vetustissimum usu est†. bibitur et madefacti dilutum, ita enim appelletur hoc genus. diluti ratio ut, quisquis fuerit modus aquae, tegatur per triduum. tritum raro in usu est, sicut et sucus expressi. exprimitur autem, cum primum semen turgescit, madefactum aqua triduo recens aut siccum septem diebus, dein coctum in aeneo vaso ad tertias decem heminis in aquae sextariis xlv iterumque percolatum, herba electa, coquitur ad crassitudinem mellis, qualiter ex minore centaurio quaeritur sucus. sed hic [absinthii] inutilis stomacho capitique est, cum sit ille decoctus saluberrimus. namque adstringit stomachum bilemque detrahit, urinam ciet, alvum emollit et in dolore sanat, ventris animalia pellit, malaciam stomachi et inflationes discutit cum sile et nardo Gallico, aceti exiguo addito. fastidia absterget, concoctiones adiuvat, cruditates detrahit cum ruta et pipere et sale. antiqui purgationis causa dabant cum marinae aquae veteris sextario seminis sex drachmas cum tribus salis, mellis cyatho. efficacius purgat duplicato sale. diligenter autem teri debet propter difficultatem. quidam et in polenta dedere supra dictum pondus, addito puleio, alii pueris foliain fico sicca, ut amaritudinem fallerent. thoracem purgat cum iride sumptum. in regio morbo crudum bibitur cum apio aut adianto. adversus inflationes calidum paulatim sorbetur ex aceto aut pulte aut fico sumitur. adversatur fungis ex aceto, item visco, cicutae ex vino et muris aranei morsibus, draconi marino, scorpionibus. oculorum claritati multum confert. epiphoris cum passo inponitur, suggillatis cum melle. aures decocti eius vapor suffitu sanat aut, si manent sanie, cum melle tritum. urinam ac menses cient tres quattuorve ramuli cum Gallici nardi radice una, cyathis aquae sex, menses privatim cum melle sumptum et in vellere adpositum. anginae subvenit cum melle et nitro. epinyctidas ex aqua sanat, volnera recentia prius quam aqua tangantur inpositum, praeterea capitis ulcera. peculiariter ilibus inponitur cum Cypria cera aut cum fico. sanat et pruritus. non est dandum in febri. nausias maris arcet in navigationibus potum, inguinum tumorem in ventrali habitum. somnos adlicit olfactum aut inscio sub capite positum. vestibus insertum tineas arcet. culices ex oleo perunctis abigit et fumo, si uratur. atramentum librarium ex diluto eius temperatum litteras a musculis tuetur. capillum denigrat absinthii cinis unguento rosaceoque permixtus.

There are several kinds of wormwood. The Santonic comes from the state of the Santoni in Gaul, the Pontic from Pontus, where cattle fatten on it, and so are found to be without gall; there is no finer wormwood than this, the Italian being far more bitter, but the pith of Pontic wormwood is sweet. About its use there is general agreement, for it is a plant very easily found, and one of the most useful, being moreover especially honoured at the religious rites of the Roman people, seeing that at the Latin festival there is a race for four-horse chariots on the Capitoline Hill, the winner of which takes a draught of wormwood, our ancestors thinking, I believe, that health was a very grand prize to give. It strengthens the stomach and for this reason it is used, as I have said, to give a flavour to wines. A decoction in water, which is afterwards cooled in the open for a day and a night, is also taken; six drachmae of the leaves with their branches are boiled down in three sextarii of rain water; salt too should be added. When very old it can still be used. There is also administered an infusion of wormwood in water; for this preparation should be styled “infusion,” and an essential of the infusion is that, whatever quantity of water is used, for three days the preparation should be wholly enclosed. Pounded wormwood is rarely employed; rarely too the extracted juice. It is extracted, however, as soon as the seed begins to swell, the plant being soaked in water for three days when fresh and for seven when dried; it is then boiled down to one third in a bronze vessel, ten heminae to forty-five sextarii of water; and after being strained to remove the solid pieces it is boiled down again to the thickness of honey, just like juice obtained from the lesser centaury. But this juice is injurious to the stomach and head, while the decoction I mentioned is very wholesome. For it is astringent to the stomach, and with sil, Gallic nard and a little vinegar, brings away bile, promotes urine, soothes the bowels, curing them when in pain, drives out worms from the belly, and removes nausea and flatulence. With rue, pepper and salt, it takes away the distaste for food, and aids digestion, bringing away undigested food. As a purge, the old custom was to give six drachmae of the seed, three of salt, and a cyathus of honey, in a sextarius of sea water kept for a time, the purge being more efficacious if the amount of salt is doubled. The pounding however must be carefully done, as it is a difficult task. Some have also given the aforesaid weight in pearl barley with the addition of pennyroyal; some the leaves in a dried fig to children, so that the bitter taste is not noticed. Taken with iris it purges the thorax. For jaundice it is taken raw in drink with celery or adiantum. For flatulence it is slowly sipped hot in water; for the liver it is taken with Gallic nard; for the spleen, with vinegar, pottage or fig. In vinegar it is an antidote to poisonous fungi, as also to mistletoe; in wine, to hemlock, the poison of the shrew mouse, sea weever and scorpions. It is a great aid to clear vision. With raisin wine it is applied to eye fluxes, and with honey to bruises. Ear trouble is cured by fumigation with the steam of the decoction, or when bloody pus exudes, by pounded wormwood with honey. Three or four twigs, with one root of Gallic nard and six cyathi of water, are diuretic and an emmenagogue; it is specific for faulty menstruation if taken with honey or applied as a pessary in wool. With honey and soda it is helpful for quinsy. In water it cures night rashes. Recent wounds it heals if applied before they have been touched with water; it cures, moreover, sores on the head. With Cyprian wax or with fig it makes an exceptionally good application for affections of the flanks. It also cures pruritus, but must not be given to feverish patients. Taken in drink on sea voyages it prevents nausea; worn under a belly-band, swellings of the groin. It induces sleep if inhaled through the nose or placed secretly under the sufferer’s head. Put into clothes it keeps away moth. Rubbing the body all over with it in oil drives away gnats, as does the smoke of it when burnt. Writing ink mixed with the infusion protects the writing from mice. Ashes of wormwood mixed with ointment and rose-oil stain the hair black.

absinthe

Thus the Greek [pinthion] means grateful to the taste; [apinthion] means unpalatable: hence absinthe.

Pynthe

Pynthe. as Pinte (Rab.)
Pinte. A pinte; the French, or Pasrsien pinte, somewhat lessw than a sixt part short of our Quart.

pinte

Pinte, f. penac. Est une espece de mesure de vin vendu à pot, dont les deux cens quatre vingts et huit font le muyd au fust et jaulge de Paris, et contient deux chopines, et n’est seulement mesure de liquides, comme vin, eauë, et huyle: ains aussi d’aucunes arides, ainsi on dit une pinte de febves. Aucuns estiment que ce mot vienne de cestuy Grec, pinô, qui signifie boire. L’opinion desquels est favorisée de ce qu’on appelle un homme Pinton, qui est grand beuveur. Les autres le tirent de cet autre Grec pitunê, qui signifie un vase de terre à mettre vin, enduict de poix par syncope de y, et transposition de la lettre n, mais ne les uns ne les autres n’ont gueres grande raison, estant pitunê de la façon de ce grand vase de tere que l’Italien par mot corrompu appelle Vettina, auquel à Rome on met l’eauë du Tibre.