aspic

Borrowed from French aspic, from Latin aspis, and possibly influenced by French basilic (“basilisk”). The culinary sense may come from association with the snake due to the traditional colours and cold temperature of aspic, in addition to the fact that the gelatine was often moulded in a shape similar to a coiled snake.

• IPA^(key): /ˈæspɪk/

aspic with eggs

aspic (plural aspics)

1. A dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatine, jelly-like substance made from a meat stock or consommé.
   • 1943, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, Bobbs Merrill, page 441:

     "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Wynand," whispered Keating. His eyes fixed upon the tomato aspic on his salad plate; it was soft and shivering; it made him sick.

2. (obsolete, poetic) An asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra:

     This is an aspic's trail: and these fig-leaves / Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves.

   • 1833, Lord Alfred Tennyson, "A Dream of Fair Women":

     (With that she tore her robe apart, and half / The polished argent of her breast to sight / Laid bare. Thereto she pointed with a laugh, / Showing the aspic's bite. )

3. A piece of ordnance carrying a 12-pound shot.

• brawn
• head cheese
• meat jelly

aspic (not comparable)

1. Aspish; relating to an asp, a small venomous snake of Egypt.
   • 1923, Wallace Stevens, "In the Carolinas," Harmonium, Faber and Faber (2001), →ISBN, page 3,

     Timeless mother, / How is it that your aspic nipples / For once vent honey?

• CISPA, PICAs, Spica, pacis, picas, scapi, spica

• IPA^(key): /as.pik/

From Latin aspis, and possibly influenced by basilic (“basilisk”). The culinary sense may come from association with the snake due to the traditional colours and cold temperature of aspic, in addition to the fact that the gelatine was often moulded in a shape similar to a coiled snake.

aspic m (plural aspics)

1. asp (Vipera aspis)
2. asp (Naja haje)
3. slanderer, libeller
4. (cooking) aspic (dish)
5. (slang, dated, rare) miser

Borrowed from Occitan aspic (“ear (of grain), lavender”), from Latin spicum.

aspic m (plural aspics)

1. spike lavender (Lavandula latifolia)

Borrowed from French aspic.

aspic m (invariable)

1. aspic

• cispa
• pasci
• scapi
• spica