coloquintida
(kɒləˈkwɪntɪdə)
Also 6–8 collo-, 6 colly-, 7 colliquintida.
[a. med.L. (also Sp., Pg., It.) coloquintida, f. *coloquinthid-, colocynthid-, stem of colocynthis. The qu- was to preserve the k sound of Gr. κολοκύνθιδ-.]
The colocynth.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xl. (1495) 626 Coloquintida is a manere herbe that is moost bytter..and is lyke to the comyn Gourd and hath rounde fruyte. 1551 Turner Herbal i. N ij b, The inner parte of the fruyte of coloquintida hath the natur to purge..made in pilles with honied water. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 355 The Food..as bitter as Coloquintida. 1606 Day Ile of Guls i. iv. (1881) 24 Looke a scance like a Pothecaries wife pounding Colliquintida. 1616 Chapman Batrachom. 4, I eat no pot-herb..nor coloquintidas. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 158 She [Madame Guyon]..put coloquintida in her food. |
b. fig. referring to its bitterness.
| 1622 S. Ward Life of Faith in Death (1627) 2 The least dram of this Coloquintida [fear of death] will marre the relish of all his sweetes. 1648 C. Walker Hist. Indep. i. 136 The Ordinance..was passed in the House of Commons with this Coloquintida in it. a 1734 North Exam. iii. ix. §2 (1740) 648 A Bundle of Wormwood and Colloquintida gathered out of cancred Libels. 1829 Blackw. Mag. XXVI. 442 A dose of wordy Coloquintida. |