Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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زَنْجَبِيلٌ

Root: زنجبيل

Full Definition

زَنْجَبِيلٌ [Ginger; amomum zinziber;] a certain plant growing in the country of the Arabs, in the land of 'Omán, and in El-Yemen also; well known: [or the root thereof;] a certain root, or roots, creeping beneath the ground; burning, or biting, to the tongue; growing like the stalks of the papyrus, and the رَاسَن [mentioned below]: there is no wild sort of it; nor is it a tree that is eaten fresh like as herbs, or leguminous plants, are eaten; but it is used in a dry state; and its conserve is the best of conserves; and the best thereof is what is brought from the country of the Zinj and China: it has a property that is heating, or warming, digestive, lenitive in a small degree, strengthening to the venereal faculty, clearing to the phlegm, sharpening to the intellect, and exhilarating: if mixed with the moisture of the liver of the goat, and dried, and pulverized, and used as a collyrium, it removes the film [upon the eye], and obscurity of the sight.
2 It is mentioned in the Kur, where it is said, [lxxvi. 17 and 18,] كَانَ مِزَاجُهَا زَنْجَبِيلًا عَيْنًا فِيهَا تُسَمَّى سَلْسَبِيلًا [The admixture whereof shall be زنجبيل, a fountain therein named Selsebeel]: i. e. it shall have the flavour of زنجبيل [or ginger], which the Arabs esteem very pleasant: it may mean that زنجبيل is [essentially] in the wine of Paradise: or that it is the admixture thereof: or that it is a name for the fountain whence this wine is taken, and which is named Selsebeel also. As some assert, it means also Wine [absolutely].
3 زَنْجَبِيلُ الكِلَابِ A certain herb, or leguminous plant, the leaves of which are like [those of] the خِلَاف [or salix Aegyptia], and the twigs are red: it clears the [discoloration of the face termed] كَلَف, and the [spots in the skin termed] نَمَش; and it kills dogs; wherefore it is named in relation to them.
4 زَنْجَبِيلُ العَجَمِ i. q. الأُشْتُرْغَازُ [a word of Persian origin, now applied by Arabs to A species of carline thistle]. [Accord. to Freytag, Horminum, or salvia silvestris: but this, I believe, is what is called in Pers. أُشْتُرْغَان.]
5 زَنْجَبِيلُ الشَّامِ i. q. الرَّاسَنُ [Inula helenium, common inula, or elecampane].
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