Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Lauraceae — the sassafras tree.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

New Latin, from Spanish sasafras, possibly from Latin saxifragus ("stone-breaking") from the habit of certain unrelated plants growing in cracks in boulders.

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Examples

Comments

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  • sarsaparilla would be made from extract of the sarsaparilla plant, a tropical vine distantly related to the lily, but you'd be wrong. It was originally made (artificial flavors have taken over now, of course) from a blend of birch oil and sassafras, the dried root bark of the sassafras tree. Sassafras was widely used as a home remedy in the nineteenth century

    August 12, 2013