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nepenthe. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
nepenthe, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
nepenthe in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
A back-formation from nepenthes.
Pronunciation
Noun
nepenthe (plural nepenthes)
- (archaic) Alternative form of nepenthes (“a drug that relieves one of emotional pain, grief or sorrow”).
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, part II , 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 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, , →OCLC, page 144:"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!"