Everyday LifeGreek → English
Tisane
/tɪˈzæn/noun
An infusion of herbs, flowers or fruit taken as a drink, containing no tea.
The Greek roots
πτισάνη
ptisánē
peeled barley, barley water
Literally: “drink of husked barley”
Follow a root:πτισάνη1 word
The story of the word
πτισάνη was peeled barley and the gruel or water made from it, the standard Greek sickroom food; the Hippocratic writers argue at length about how thick it should be. Latin ptisana and Middle English ptisan carried the barley sense for centuries. English then reborrowed the word from French with the barley gone, so a tisane is now anything steeped in hot water except tea.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
In a sentence
She made a tisane of lemon verbena and left the teapot alone.