English

the spice sumac

Alternative forms

• shumac, sumach

Noun

sumac ‎(usually uncountable, plural sumacs)

1. Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus and other genera in Anacardiaceae.
   • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:

     There was a Steinway grand piano […] a cherrywood writing table, and an assortment of floor lamps, table lamps, and "bridge" lamps that sprang up all over the congested inscape like sumac.

2. A sour spice popular in the Eastern Mediterranean, made from the berries of tanner's sumac (Rhus coriaria).

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Musca

Catalan

Noun

sumac m ‎(plural sumacs)

1. sumac

Old French

Noun

sumac m ‎(oblique plural sumas, nominative singular sumas, nominative plural sumac)

1. sumac
   • 1303, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 131-132 of this essay:

     et couvrir par quelconque cause que soit ou par sumac, ou par galles, ou par galbanum, ou par baing d’eaue froide, ou de vive, ou semblables.

Descendants

• English: sumac (borrowed)
• French: sumac