cascara

[prettygoodword]

cascara (kas-KAIR-uh) - n., a North American buckthorn (Rhamnus purshiana), also called bearberry, whose bark is used as a laxative; the laxative, more commonly called cascara sagrada.


Also called cascara buckthorn or, in Chinook jargon, Chittam or Chitticum. Borrowed around 1880 from Spanish cáscara, bark, itself probably from cascar, to crack, break, from Vulgar Latin *quassicare, to shake, from Latin quassare, to shatter (the root of quash). The more common name for laxative means "sacred bark" in Spanish.

---L.

---L.

Comments

[med_cat]

Haha interesting etymology, thanks! Tastes nasty, that stuff (so I was told!) and it got taken off the market as the laxative some while ago.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Complete off even the herbal remedies market? Interesting.

---L.

[med_cat]

Oh I bet it's on the herbal remedies market all right; no, I meant off the pharmacy shelves (I found out when they stopped prescribing it where I work, and I asked why).

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Ah -- gotcha.

---L.

[med_cat]

Anytime :) Tastes nasty, that stuff ('s what I was told); when it was prescribed, it was prescribed together with milk of magnesia, to be mixed together ;)