Silphium
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A plant, thought to be extinct, used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in cooking and as a contraceptive. historical
"Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing. Romans loved the herb as much as we love chocolate. They used silphium as perfume, as medicine, as an aphrodisiac and turned it into a condiment, called laser, that they poured on to almost every dish."
Example
More examples"Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing. Romans loved the herb as much as we love chocolate. They used silphium as perfume, as medicine, as an aphrodisiac and turned it into a condiment, called laser, that they poured on to almost every dish."
Etymology
From Latin silphium, from Ancient Greek σίλφιον (sílphion).
Related phrases
More for "silphium"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.