bezoar
[bee-zawr, -zohr]
- 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.
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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. 2018
Examples from the Web for bezoar
Historical Examples
The Arabic name of the bezoar (badesar) has the meaning of antidote.
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 EuropeJohn 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 ChinaE. T. C. Werner
These bodies had long been known as “fossil fir cones” and “bezoar stones.”
bezoar
- 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
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for bezoar
n.
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).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
bezoar
(bē′zôr′)- A hard indigestible mass of material, such as hair, vegetable fibers, or the seeds and skins of fruits, formed in the alimentary canal.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.