cardamom
(ˈkɑːdəməm)
Forms: 6–8 cardamome, 7 -dumome, -damony, -damon(e, (9 cardemon), 7–9 cardamum, 7– cardamom.
[ad. L. cardamōmum, a. Gr. καρδάµωµον, f. κάρδαµον cress + ἄµωµον amomum: cf. F. cardamome.]
A spice consisting of the seed-capsules of various species of Amomum and Elettaria (family Zingiberaceæ), natives of the East Indies and China; used in medicine as a stomachic, and also for flavouring sauces and curries. (Rarely applied to the plant from which the spice is obtained.) The only kind included in the British pharmacopœia is the Malabar cardamom, obtained from E. Cardamomum. b. Also occas. applied to the capsules of A. Meleguetta of Western Africa, usually called Grains of Paradise.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxxiii. (1493) 623 Cardomomum helpyth ayenst wamblyng and indygnacyon of the stomak.] 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 15 There begin spyces to be found as ginger..Cardamome, Cassia. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 122 Cardamom, or Graines of Paradise, are good to be drunke against the falling sicknesse. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 21 The lesser Cardamome is enclos'd in a Pod of the Length of a Child's Finger. 1799 Southey Nondescr. iii. Wks. III. 63 Give Boreas the wind-cholic, till he roar For cardamum. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. India I. 11 Pepper and cardamums grow in abundance on the western coast. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 151 Cardamoms are shipped to this country from Ceylon. |
| attrib. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 183 Powdered cardamum seeds. 1883 Athenæum 21 July 75/1 Cardamom gardens in Coorg. |