Absinthe - Etymology

Etymology

The French word absinthe can refer either to the alcoholic beverage or, less commonly, to the actual wormwood plant, with grande absinthe being Artemisia absinthium, and petite absinthe being Artemisia pontica. The Latin name artemisia comes from Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt. Absinthe is derived from the Latin absinthium, which in turn is the latinisation of the ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον apsínthion, "wormwood". The use of Artemisia absinthium in a drink is attested in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (I 936–950), where Lucretius indicates that a drink containing wormwood is given as medicine to children in a cup with honey on the brim to make it drinkable. This was a metaphor for the presentation of complex ideas in poetic form.

Some claim that the word means "undrinkable" in Greek, but it may instead be linked to the Persian root spand or aspand, or the variant esfand, which meant Peganum harmala, also called Syrian Rue—although it is not actually a variety of rue, another famously bitter herb. That Artemisia absinthium was commonly burned as a protective offering may suggest that its origins lie in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *spend, meaning "to perform a ritual" or "make an offering". Whether the word was a borrowing from Persian into Greek, or from a common ancestor of both, is unclear. Alternatively, the Greek word may originate in a pre-Greek Pelasgian word, marked by the non-Indoeuropean consonant complex νθ.

Alternate spellings for absinthe include absinth, absynthe, and absenta. Absinth (without the final e) is a spelling variant most commonly applied to absinthes produced in central and eastern Europe, and is specifically associated with Bohemian-style absinthes.