Word Study
Quassia
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun Quassia has 2 senses
- quassia(n = noun.substance) Array - a bitter compound used as an insecticide and tonic and vermifuge; extracted from the wood and bark of trees of the genera Quassia and Picrasma; Array has particulars: jamaica quassia
- quassia(n = noun.plant) bitterwood, quassia amara - handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark; Array is a kind of bitterwood tree
is a kind of organic compound
is a member of genus quassia
CIDE DICTIONARY
Quassia, n. [NL. From the name of a negro, Quassy, or Quash, who prescribed this article as a specific.].
The wood of several tropical American trees of the order Simarubeæ , as Quassia amara , Picræna excelsa , and Simaruba amara . It is intensely bitter, and is used in medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making beer. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
Quassia, n.
1 an evergreen tree, Quassia amara, native to S. America.
2 the wood, bark, or root of this tree, yielding a bitter medicinal tonic and insecticide.
1 an evergreen tree, Quassia amara, native to S. America.
2 the wood, bark, or root of this tree, yielding a bitter medicinal tonic and insecticide.
Etymology
G. Quassi, 18th-c. Surinam slave, who discovered its medicinal properties
ROGET THESAURUS
Quassia
Unsavoriness
N unsavoriness, amaritude, acrimony, acridity (bitterness), roughness, acerbity, austerity, gall and wormwood, rue, quassia, aloes, marah, sickener, unsavory, unpalatable, unsweetened, unsweet, ill-flavored, bitter, bitter as gall, acrid, acrimonious, rough, offensive, repulsive, nasty, sickening, nauseous, loathsome, fulsome, unpleasant.
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