▪ I. cassia1
(ˈkæsɪa)
Also (4 chasee), 4–7 casia.
[a. L. casia (cassia), a. Gr. κασία, ad. Heb. q'tsīﻋāh ‘a bark resembling cinnamon, but less aromatic, so called from being stripped off (f. qātsaﻋ to cut off, strip off bark)’, Gesenius. Wyclif's word points to an OF. form with ch.]
1. An inferior kind of cinnamon, esp. the bark obtained from Cinnamomum Cassia; thicker, coarser, less delicate in flavour, and cheaper than the true cinnamon. More fully cassia-bark.
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. xliv. 10 [xlv. 8] Myrre, and gutta, and cassia dropiað of þinum claðum. 1382 Wyclif Ex. xxx. 24 Tak to thee swete smellynge thingis..of chasee [1388 casia] fyve hundryd sicles. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxviii. (1495) 621 Though men vse to wryte and to sowne Cassia wyth dowble S yet it sholde be wryten and sowned wyth oo syngle S.—Casia and not Cassia. 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 15 Spyces..as ginger, pepper, mirabolanes, Cardamome, Cassia. 1611 Bible Ps. xlv. 8 All thy garments smell of myrrhe, and aloes, and cassia. 1626 Bacon Sylva §620 Cassia, which is now the substitute of Cinnamon. 1693 Sir T. Blount Nat. Hist. 41 You may call the thicker Bark Cassia, and the thinner Cinnamon. 1871 tr. Schellen's Spectr. Anal. §41. 162 The spectrum..obtained from oil of cassia. |
b. Also distinguished from 4, as
cassia lignea.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxvii. (1495) 620 That one manere Cassia is callyd Cassia fistula and the other Cassia lignea..Cassia lignea is the rynde of a lytyll tree. 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4146/4 Fine Cinnamon 12 Bales, Ordinary Cinnamon or Cassia Ligna 153 Bales. 1883 Daily News 11 Oct. 2/7 Of 1,600 boxes Cassia Lignea offered. |
2. The tree itself,
Cinnamomum Cassia.
| 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 8 A great wood of Precious trees, some of Cinomome & Cassia. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 373 Casia or Canell, a plant it is, which groweth neer to the plains from whence the Cinamon comes. 1832 Veg. Subst. Food 347 Cassia..is a native of..the south of Asia..The bark and buds are known in commerce as cassia lignea and cassia buds. |
3. poet. A fragrant shrub or plant. This is partly a rhetorical use of the word from the Bible (
Ps. xlv. 8), partly a reference to the
casia of Vergil and Ovid, explained by Lewis and Short as ‘a fragrant, shrub-like plant, mezereon’, thought by some to be
Osyris alba Linn., by Prof. Daubeny to be
Daphne Gnidium.
| 1594 Greene Look. Glasse (1861) 135 This offering of..myrrh and cassia, freely I do yield. 1616 Bullokar, s.v. Casia, Poets understand often by it some sweet-smelling herbe. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 293 Through Groves of Myrrhe, And flouring Odours, Cassia, Nard, and Balme, A Wilderness of sweets. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 430 Beneath his Body, broken Boughs and Thyme, And pleasing Casia just renew'd in prime. a 1821 Keats Epist. 271 And intertwined the cassia's arms unite, With its own drooping buds. |
4. Bot. A genus of trees, shrubs, or herbs (family Leguminosæ) distributed in numerous species over the warmer regions of the earth. The leaflets of several species constitute what are known in medicine as
Senna leaves. The name
cassia fistula was given already in the Middle Ages, to one species, the Pudding Pipe tree, a native of India, but cultivated in Northern Africa, the West Indies, etc., which produces the
cassia pods containing a pulp used as a laxative. Thence botanists have extended the name to the genus.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxviii. (1495) 621 Cassia fistula is the fruyte of a certen tree that beryth longe sede..the mery within is blacke and moyst and swete and is medlyd wyth certen whyte greynes. 1585 Lloyd Treas. Health H v, Lentyl, roses, Licorise & a lytle of Cassia⁓fistula. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 97/1 Cassia..the Flowers are yellow, many growing together on a long stalk. 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3940/3 Their Cargo's, consisting of..Lignum Vitæ, Molosses, Cashia Fistula, Shruff, etc. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 545 Some manna and pulp of cassia may be dissolved in boiling water. 1866 Livingstone Jrnl. ix. I. 235 Cassias and another tree..are now in flower. |
b. Any medicinal product obtained from this.
| 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. ix. 256 Purge the norice with cassia or manna. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. lxxxiii. 726 Gently purge with Cassia mixed with turpentine. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Cassia of the islands..is sent from the Antilles; where it is produced in such abundance, that the vessels, in their home voyages, use it as ballast. 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xxv. 225 The cassia, a shining hard yellow seed inclosed in a woody shell near sixteen inches long..with a black soft pulp as sweet as honey: this is considered as a very safe laxative. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
cassia-bark,
lignea (see above, 1);
cassia fistula (see 4);
cassia-buds, the unexpanded buds of several species of cinnamon,
esp. Cinnamomum aromaticum, used like cinnamon or cloves;
cassia-oil, common oil of cinnamon;
cassia-pods,
-pulp, the fruit of
Cassia fistula (see 4);
cassia-stick tree, a name of
C. fistula;
cassia-tree (see 2).
| 1851–9 Hooker in Manual Sc. Enq. 426 An inferior kind of *Cassia Buds known as Lovengoopor is found at Madras. |
| 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 222 The *Cassia-stick Tree..The pulp that surrounds the seeds..is an easy gentle laxative. |
| 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 266 On the hills we saw a great many *cassia trees. |
| 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 225 The *cassia tree is a native of Malabar, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Java. |
▪ II. † cassia2 Obs. Also
cashee.
(See
quots.)
| 1692 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 572 Mr. Wightman..has cast 2 cassia brass guns of 7 foot long, to throw bombs of 10 inches diameter. Ibid. III. 28 A tryall of some Cassia guns to shoot granadoes..before his majestie in Hyde park. Ibid. III. 93, 6 brass cashee pieces..to shoot granado's thro' the side of a ship, then breaks and setts fire to the same. |