sumac

English

the spice sumac

Alternative forms

Etymology

Old French sumac, from Medieval Latin sumach, from Arabic سُمَّاق (summāq), from Classical Syriac ܣܘܡܩܐ (summāqāʾ, red; sumac).

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈsuːmæk/

Noun

sumac (usually uncountable, plural sumacs)

  1. Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus and other genera in Anacardiaceae.
    • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:
      There was a Steinway grand piano [] a cherrywood writing table, and an assortment of floor lamps, table lamps, and "bridge" lamps that sprang up all over the congested inscape like sumac.
  2. A sour spice popular in the Eastern Mediterranean, made from the berries of tanner's sumac (Rhus coriaria).

Derived terms

Translations

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Further reading

Anagrams


Catalan

Pronunciation

Noun

sumac m (plural sumacs)

  1. sumac (tree)
  2. sumac (spice)

Further reading


Old French

Noun

sumac m (oblique plural sumas, nominative singular sumas, nominative plural sumac)

  1. sumac
    • 1377, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 131-132 of this essay:
      et couvrir par quelconque cause que soit ou par sumac, ou par galles, ou par galbanum, ou par baing d’eaue froide, ou de vive, ou semblables.

Descendants

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