Bezoar

Definitions

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Bezoar A calculous concretion found in the intestines of certain ruminant animals (as the wild goat, the gazelle, and the Peruvian llama) formerly regarded as an unfailing antidote for poison, and a certain remedy for eruptive, pestilential, or putrid diseases. Hence: Any antidote or panacea.☞ Two kinds were particularly esteemed, the Bezoar orientale of India, and the Bezoar occidentale of Peru.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n bezoar A name for certain calculi or concretions found in the stomach or intestines of some animals (especially ruminants), formerly supposed to be efficacious in preventing the fatal effects of poison, and still held in estimation in some eastern countries. They are used in China both as a pigment and as a drug. Such calculi are generally formed around some foreign substance, as a bit of wood, straw, hair, etc. Many varieties have been mentioned, but most value was put on the bezoar from the East Indies and that from Peru.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Bezoar bē′zōr a stony concretion found in the stomachs of goats, antelopes, llamas, chamois, &c., formerly esteemed an antidote to all poisons.
    • ***

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
F. bézoard, fr. Ar. bāzahr, bādizahr, fr. Per. pād-zahr, bezoar; pād, protecting + zahr, poison; cf. Pg. & Sp. bezoar,
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Through Sp. bezaar and Ar. bāzahr, from Pers. pād-zahr, counter-poison, zahr, poison.

Usage

In literature:

BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a supposed antidote to poison.
"Volpone; Or, The Fox" by Ben Jonson
BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a supposed antidote to poison.
"The Alchemist" by Ben Jonson
BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a supposed antidote to poison.
"The Poetaster" by Ben Jonson
BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a supposed antidote to poison.
"Sejanus: His Fall" by Ben Jonson
BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a supposed antidote to poison.
"Every Man In His Humor" by Ben Jonson
To the general he gave a handsome Java dagger, which is much esteemed there, a good bezoar stone, and some other things.
"A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII." by Robert Kerr
Facing the Snorter, he spat in his face, with a noise like thunder, a piece of bezoar as large as a rice-bowl.
"Myths and Legends of China" by E. T. C. Werner
Bezoar is another principal article of their trade.
"A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11" by Robert Kerr
The true and original "bezoar-stone" of the East is a concretion found in the intestine of the Persian wild goat.
"More Science From an Easy Chair" by Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester
Similar balls found in goats have been called Bezoar.
"Zoonomia, Vol. II" by Erasmus Darwin
These bodies had long been known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones.
"Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3" by Various
Maria gave me a very large bezoar stone, that was taken from the stomach of a guanaco.
"Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836" by Robert FitzRoy
Bezoar stone and unicorn's horn were also used in confections.
"The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc." by Various
Buffon called this Goat the "Pasan," which is evidently a corruption of the word bezoar.
"The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia" by Frank Evers Beddard
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In poetry:

Though thou of balm and nectar were possess'd —
Of the bezoar stone, or of a flood
Of wine and oil, with myrrh and flow'r, unbless'd
By God — they ne'er cou'd do thee any good.
"An Admonition To The Sick To Call For A Clergyman And A Physician, And To Shun All Charms, &c. &c." by Rees Prichard

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