English

asafoetida

Alternative forms

• assafoetida, assa-fœtida

Noun

asafoetida ‎(uncountable)

1. A resinous gum from the stem and roots of genus Ferula, especially Ferula assa-foetida, having a strong, unpleasant smell, with culinary and medical uses. [from 14th c.]
   • 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, II:

     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.

   • 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover 1964, p. 54:

     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 [...].

   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man In Deptford:

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

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