bezoar

[bee-zawr, -zohr]

noun

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, especially ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

Obsolete. a counterpoison or antidote.

Origin of bezoar

1470–80; earlier bezear < Medieval Latin bezahar < Arabic bā(di)zahr < Persian pād-zahr counterpoison; -o- < New Latin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bezoar

Historical Examples of bezoar

The Arabic name of the bezoar (badesar) has the meaning of antidote.
A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499
Unknown
The ancients, both Greeks and Latins, have no knowledge of the bezoar.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume VIII (of 10)
Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
The oldest domesticated goats seem to be descended from the Bezoar goat (Capra ægagrus), from the mountains of southwestern Asia.
The New Stone Age in Northern Europe
John M. Tyler
Facing the Snorter, he spat in his face, with a noise like thunder, a piece of bezoar as large as a rice-bowl.
Myths and Legends of China
E. T. C. Werner
These bodies had long been known as “fossil fir cones” and “bezoar stones.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3
Various

British Dictionary definitions for bezoar

bezoar

noun

a hard mass, such as a stone or hairball, in the stomach and intestines of animals, esp ruminants, and man: formerly thought to be an antidote to poisons

Word Origin for bezoar

C15: from Old French bézoard, from Arabic bāzahr, from Persian bādzahr, from bād against + zahr poison

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 bezoar

late 15c., ultimately from Arabic bazahr, from Persian pad-zahr "counter-poison," from pad "protecting, guardian, master" (from Iranian *patar-, cf. Avestan patar-, from PIE *pa-tor-, from root *pa- "to protect, feed") + zahr "poison" (from Old Iranian *jathra, from PIE *gwhn-tro-, from root *gwhen- "to strike, kill;" see bane). Originally "antidote," later specifically in reference to a concoction from solid matter found in the stomachs and intestines of ruminants, which was held to have antidotal qualities (1570s).

bezoar in Medicine

bezoar

[bē′zôr′]

n.

A hard indigestible mass of material, such as hair, vegetable fibers, or the seeds and skins of fruits, formed in the alimentary canal.