ipecacuanha
(ɪpɪkækjuːˈænə)
Forms: 7 ipe-, hypepocoanha, hypopecovana, -couana, hypocochoana, 8 hypecacuana, ipecacuana, ipececuanha, ipecacoanha, 8– ipecacuanha; contracted ipecacuan, ipecac.
[a. Pg. ipecacuanha (ipekaˈkwanja), ad. Tupi-Guarani ipe-kaa-guéne.
According to Cavalcanti, cited by Skeat Trans. Philol. Soc. 1885, 91, the meaning of ipe-kaa-guene is ‘low or creeping plant causing vomit’. The word is said to be a descriptive appellation applied to several medicinal plants, the proper name of the Cephaëlis, which produces the ipecacuanha of commerce, being poaya.]
1. The root of Cephaëlis Ipecacuanha, N.O. Cinchonaceæ, a South American small shrubby plant, which possesses emetic, diaphoretic, and purgative properties; also popularly applied to various forms in which the drug is employed.
| 1682 J. Pechey (title) Some Observations made upon the Brasilian Root, called Ipepocoanha. Ibid. 4 What wonderful Virtue I have found in the Root called Hypepocoanha. 1698 Froger Voy. 114 As for the Hypopecovana it's a small Root, that in our Armies has sufficiently discovered the Vertues of it against the Bloody-flux. 1698 M. Lister Journ. Paris (1699) 134 Tho' he took..Hypocochoana five times, it had no effect upon him. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 24 The Ipecacuana..is a little Root; which the Dutch and Portuguese bring us from the coast of Brazil. 1717 tr. Frezier's Voy. 303 Oil of Copayoa, Hypecacuana. 1744 Berkeley Siris §84 The violent operation of ipecacuanha lies in its resin. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physick (1762) 113 Pour a Dish of tea on twenty Grains of Ipececuanha. 1764 Grainger Sugar Cane ii. 114 note, Almost as useful in dysenteric complaints as ipecacuan. 1772 Hey in Phil. Trans. LXII. 260 Five grains of ipecacoanha. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 130 Two or three grains of ipecacuan. 1829 Southey O. Newman v, Words..which from me or you Could not be forced by ipecacuanha, Drop from his oratoric lips like manna. |
2. The plant Cephaëlis Ipecacuanha.
| 1788 M. Cutler in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888) I. 427 Found vast quantities of Ipecacuanha on a hill. 1870 Pall Mall G. 26 Aug. 4 In Calcutta some experiments have been made in the cultivation of ipecacuanha. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 175 Ipecacuanha, covered with bright red and yellow flowers grew in profusion. |
3. Transferred to many other plants whose roots have emetic properties, e.g.
American ipecacuanha (Euphorbia Ipecacuanha, also Gillenia trifoliata); bastard i. (Asclepias curassavica); Indian, Ceylon, Coromandel i. (Tylophora asthmatica); Peruvian, striated, or black i. (Psychotria emetica); wild i. (Asclepias curassavica, Triosteum perfoliatum); white, amylaceous, or undulated i. (Richardsonia scabra). false i., a term applied to nearly all these plants, but esp. to species of Ionidium.
| 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 316 Bastard Ipecacuana, Asclepias. False Ipecacuana, Triosteum. |
4. fig. Something that produces nausea.
| a 1763 Shenstone Ess. (1765) 191 The foppery of love-verses, when a person is ill and indisposed, is perfect ipecacuanha. 1788 H. Walpole in Walpoliana, Auth. & Artists 11 An author, talking of his own works, or censuring those of others, is to me a dose of ipecacuanha. |
5. attrib., as ipecacuanha cuttings, ipecacuanha lozenge, ipecacuanha root; ipecacuanha wine, the filtered infusion of the root in wine.
| 1761 Armstrong Day 194 I've known a dame, sage else as a divine, For brandy whip off ipecacuan wine. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 707 Ipecacuanha Wine. 1847 F. A. Kemble Let. 7 Mar. in Rec. Later Life (1882) III. 173, I..am swallowing ipecacuanha lozenges by the gross. 1870 Sir. R. Christison Jrnl. in Life II. 211 The ipecacuan cuttings for India. 1926–7 Army & Navy Stores Catal. p. xlix, Ipecacuanha lozenges. |