Dictionary

sassafras en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈsasəfɹas/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Spanish sasafrás, possibly from Latin saxifragus (“stone-breaking”) from the habit of certain plants growing in cracks in boulders. If this etymology is correct, it is a doublet of saxifrage.

Meanings

1. (countable) A tree of species Sassafras albidum of the eastern United States and Asia having mitten-shaped leaves and red, aromatic heartwood.
2. (countable) A tree of any species in the genus Sassafras.
3. (uncountable) The bark of the root of this plant, used for medicinal and (mostly historically) culinary purposes and formerly a main ingredient in root beer.
   • our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a daily proportion of Bisket, which the sailers would pilfer to sell, give, or exchange with us, for money, Saxefras, furres, or love. 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 82:
4. (Australia, countable) Any of various trees of the family Atherospermataceae, having aromatic bark.
   • [W]here the gullies are fringed with blackwoods, wattle, myrtles, musks and sassafras[.] 1951, Ambrose Pratt, The Lore of the Lyrebird, Melbourne: Robertson and Mullens, page 58:

Forms

Deriveds

Australian sassafras · Brazilian sassafras · blackheart sassafras · yellow sassafras · sassafras nut · southern sassafras · swamp sassafras · silky sassafras · white sassafras · New Zealand sassafras · black sassafras · northern sassafras · scentless sassafras · grey sassafras · red sassafras · Chilean sassafras · Chinese sassafras · socket sassafras · Oliver's sassafras

Relateds

sarsaparilla (botanical ingredients of root beer)

Synonyms

silky sassafras · red sassafras · cinnamonwood · white sassafras

Translations (22)

fi amerikansassafras (Sassafras albidum) · vo sasafrat (tree of the species Sassafras) · tl sasapras (tree of the species Sassafras) · unm winakw (Sassafras albidum) · de Fenchelholzbaum (tree of the species Sassafras) · pl sasafras (dried bark of the sassafras tree) · tl sasapras (dried bark of the sassafras tree) · es sasafrás (tree of the species Sassafras) · pl sasafras lekarski (Sassafras albidum) · de Sassafrasrinde (dried bark of the sassafras tree) · es sasafrás (dried bark of the sassafras tree) · fi sassafras (tree of the species Sassafras) · de Sassafras (tree of the species Sassafras) · vo sasafratavulajal (dried bark of the sassafras tree) · fi sassafras (dried bark of the sassafras tree) · pl sasafras (tree of the species Sassafras) · de Sassafrasbaum (tree of the species Sassafras) · chr ᎦᎾᏍᏓᏥ (tree of the species Sassafras) · de Nelkenzimtbaum (tree of the species Sassafras) · ca sassafràs (Sassafras albidum) · ru сассафра́с (tree of the species Sassafras) · chr ᎧᎾᏍᏓᏥ (dried bark of the sassafras tree)