nepenthe
English
Etymology
A back-formation from nepenthes.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /nɪˈpɛnθɪ/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /nəˈpɛnθi/
- Hyphenation: ne‧pen‧the
Noun
nepenthe (plural nepenthes)
- (archaic) Alternative form of nepenthes (“a drug that relieves one of emotional pain, grief or sorrow”). [from 16th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, part II [books IV–VI], London: Printed [by Richard Field] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, →OCLC, book IV, canto III, stanzas XLII and XLIII, page 49:
- And in her other hand a cup ſhe hild, / The which was with Nepenthe to the brim vpfild. // Nepenthe is a drinck of ſouerayne grace, / Deuized by the Gods, for to aſſwage / Harts grief, and bitter gall away to chace, / VVhich ſtirs vp anguiſh and contentious rage: / In ſtead thereof ſweet peace and quiet age / It doth eſtablish in the troubled mynd.
- 1845 January 29, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”, in The Evening Mirror, New York, N.Y.: Morris & Willis, →OCLC, page 4, column 1; reprinted in Benjamin Blake Minor, editor, The Southern Literary Messenger: Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts, volume XI, Richmond, Va.: B. B. Minor, editor and proprietor, March 1845, →OCLC, page 187:
- "Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee / Respite—respite and Nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore. Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"