asafetida

[as-uh-fet-i-duh]

noun Chemistry.

a soft, brown, lumpy gum resin having a bitter, acrid taste and an obnoxious odor, obtained from the roots of several Near Eastern plants belonging to the genus Ferula, of the parsley family: formerly used in medicine as a carminative and antispasmodic.

Also a·sa·foet·i·da, asfetida.

Origin of asafetida

1350–1400; Middle English < Medieval Latin asafoetida, equivalent to asa (< Persian āzā mastic, gum) + Latin foetida, feminine of foetidus fetid

Also called devil's dung, food of the gods.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for asafoetida

Historical Examples of asafoetida

Other products are manna, suffron, asafoetida and other gums.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 7
Various
Everything was running over with wine, truffles, and asafoetida.
Salammbo
Gustave Flaubert
He reproached himself for having brought neither camphor nor asafoetida, to administer with the corn-brandy.
Feats on the Fiord
Harriet Martineau
Saffron, asafoetida, and the gum ammoniac plant, are indigenous in parts of it.
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6. (of 7): Parthia
George Rawlinson
It is generally a greasy stew of mutton, soaked with rancid butter and saffron, and seasoned with asafoetida.
Mogreb-el-Acksa
R. B. Cunninghame Graham

British Dictionary definitions for asafoetida

asafoetida

asafetida

noun

a bitter resin with an unpleasant onion-like smell, obtained from the roots of some umbelliferous plants of the genus Ferula: formerly used as a carminative, antispasmodic, and expectorant

Word Origin for asafoetida

C14: from Medieval Latin, from asa gum (compare Persian azā mastic) + Latin foetidus evil-smelling, fetid

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for asafoetida

alternative spelling of asafetida (q.v.); also see oe.

asafetida

late 14c., from Medieval Latin asa (Latinized from Persian aza "mastic") + foetida, fem. of foetidus "stinking" (see fetid).