cassis

Borrowed from French cassis.

cassis (usually uncountable, plural cassises)

1. The blackcurrant plant, Ribes nigrum; the flavor of its berries
2. A liqueur made from these berries, especially crème de cassis.

   Cassis and soda is a popular drink.

   • 1972, Evan Hunter, Every Little Crook and Nanny (page 132)

     The bartender looked at her malevolently for a moment, shook his head, and walked away to mix the drink. "I never had one of those, those vermouth cassises," Freddie said.

3. (chiefly US) A wine flavor note, suggesting the fruity and full-bodied characteristics of the fruit; mostly referred to as simply blackcurrant in the UK, where the fruit is common.

• kir

Probably from Latin cassia, from Hebrew קציעה‎ (qetzi'ah), meaning incense cassia or the cassia tree.

• IPA^(key): /ka.sis/

• Audio

  (file)

cassis m (plural cassis)

1. blackcurrant (fruit)
2. the shrub of this fruit
3. liqueur made with this fruit; crème de cassis
4. (slang) head

• “cassis” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From the Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- (“to guard, cover, care for, protect”). Cognate with the Old English hætt (“head-covering, hat”). More at the English hat.

• cassida

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.sis/, [ˈkas.sɪs]

cassis f (genitive cassidis); third declension

1. a plumed metal helmet

Third declension.

• cassidārius
• cassidīle (Mediaeval Latin), -dīlis (New Latin)
• cassidolābrum (New Latin)
• cassīta

• cassis¹ in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cassis in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cassis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• 1 cassĭs in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette: “271/1”
• cassis in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cassis in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• “cassis¹” on page 281/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

The origin is uncertain. Probably connected with catēna (“chain”).[1]

Pokorny derives from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to link or weave together”).[2]

Martirosyan connects cassis and catēna with Old Armenian ցանց (cʿancʿ, “casting-net”) and derives all from a Mediterranean substrate.[3]

cassis m

1. hunting-net