"silphium" meaning in English

See silphium in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: silphiums [plural], silphia [plural]
Etymology: From Latin silphium, from Ancient Greek σίλφιον (sílphion). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|la|silphium}} Latin silphium, {{der|en|grc|σίλφιον}} Ancient Greek σίλφιον (sílphion) Head templates: {{en-noun|s|silphia}} silphium (plural silphiums or silphia)
  1. (historical) A plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in cooking and as a contraceptive. Tags: historical Categories (topical): Spices and herbs Synonyms: silphion, laserwort, silfium Related terms: laser, rosinweed Translations (a plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Rome): σίλφιον (sílphion) [neuter] (Ancient Greek), sirpe [neuter] (Latin)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for silphium meaning in English (2.7kB)

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        "2": "la",
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  "etymology_text": "From Latin silphium, from Ancient Greek σίλφιον (sílphion).",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "silphiums",
      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2022 May 15, James Tapper, “Caesar’s favourite herb was the Viagra of ancient Rome. Until climate change killed it off”, in The Observer",
          "text": "Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing. Romans loved the herb as much as we love chocolate. They used silphium as perfume, as medicine, as an aphrodisiac and turned it into a condiment, called laser, that they poured on to almost every dish.",
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      "id": "en-silphium-en-noun-RFkGJWkD",
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        "(historical) A plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in cooking and as a contraceptive."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "laser"
        },
        {
          "word": "rosinweed"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "silphion"
        },
        {
          "word": "laserwort"
        },
        {
          "word": "silfium"
        }
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          "code": "grc",
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          "tags": [
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          "word": "sirpe"
        }
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin silphium, from Ancient Greek σίλφιον (sílphion).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "silphiums",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "silphia",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "word": "laser"
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    {
      "word": "rosinweed"
    }
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          "text": "Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing. Romans loved the herb as much as we love chocolate. They used silphium as perfume, as medicine, as an aphrodisiac and turned it into a condiment, called laser, that they poured on to almost every dish.",
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    {
      "word": "laserwort"
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    {
      "word": "silfium"
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    {
      "word": "silphion"
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "grc",
      "lang": "Ancient Greek",
      "roman": "sílphion",
      "sense": "a plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Rome",
      "tags": [
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      "sense": "a plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Rome",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "sirpe"
    }
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  "word": "silphium"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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