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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A hard indigestible mass of material, such as hair, vegetable fibers, or fruits, found in the stomachs or intestines of animals, especially ruminants, and humans. It was formerly considered to be an antidote to poisons and to possess magic properties.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A name for certain calculi or concretions found in the stomach or intestines of some animals (especially ruminants), formerly supposed to be efficacious in preventing the fatal effects of poison, and still held in estimation in some eastern countries. They are used in China both as a pigment and as a drug. Such calculi are generally formed around some foreign substance, as a bit of wood, straw, hair, etc. Many varieties have been mentioned, but most value was put on the bezoar from the East Indies and that from Peru.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A mass, usually of hair or undigested vegetable matter, found in an animal's intestines. A hairball.
  2. n. An enterolith.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A calculous concretion found in the intestines of certain ruminant animals (as the wild goat, the gazelle, and the Peruvian llama) formerly regarded as an unfailing antidote for poison, and a certain remedy for eruptive, pestilential, or putrid diseases. Hence: Any antidote or panacea.

Etymologies

  1. Middle English bezear, stone used as antidote to poison, probably from Old French bezahar, gastric or intestinal mass used as antidote to poison, from Arabic bāzahr, from Persian pādzahr : pād-, protector (from Avestan pātar-; see pā- in Indo-European roots) + zahr, poison (from Middle Persian; see gwhen- in Indo-European roots).

Examples

  • “There is a famous law-case of James the First's time, in which a goldsmith sold a hundred pounds 'worth of what he called bezoar, which was proved to be false, and the purchaser got a verdict against him.”

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works

  • “Another, chicken-egg sized bezoar is beautifully mounted in an engraved and enameled gold framework that was apparently designed to be suspended from a chain.”

    Weird Stones

  • “A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons.”

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • “This would be a tragedy because the bezoar is a resilient wild species that crosses readily with domestic goats, and it could pass on its genetic inheritance for heat, drought, and cold tolerance: disease resistance; and other survival qualities.”

    1 Microcattle

  • “It produces the anti-poison called bezoar stone, (called in the Arabic _Bide El Horrek_, i.e. the testicle of the Horreh.)”

    An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa

  • “In the East the most celebrated of these stones, since the period of Arabic civilisation, is called a bezoar-stone, "Bezoar" is the Persian word for "antidote," and does not apply only to a stone.”

    More Science From an Easy Chair

  • “It was called the bezoar stone, and was a concretion chiefly of resinous bile and magnesia, and the rest inert vegetable matter.”

    Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals

  • “It's clear that bezoar stones are now thoroughly explained (like a pearl, bezoar stones - as opposed to another kind of bezoar, like a hairy bezoar - are usually caused by the initial introduction of some irritant into the digestive tract).”

    Weird Stones

  • “Jónas Pálmason roasts ravens' heads and cracks their skulls in search of the bezoar, a magical stone described by Paracelsus which can heal human ailments and may help in the search for the philosopher's stone.”

    The Guardian: From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón - review

  • “No more bezoar stones, whatever the blasted things may be!”

    Simon & Schuster: WHEN THE HEAVENS FALL

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘bezoar’.

Comments

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  • milosrdenstvi similar to a trichobezoar, I suppose Aug 22, 2008

  • reesetee Probably. People pay plentiful pennies for Potter publications. Jul 25, 2007

  • jennarenn Perusers of Potter publications are probably plotting pranks as we speak.

    (Yes, I cheated on publications. Whatcha gonna do about it?) Jul 25, 2007

  • uselessness Poppycock! Jul 25, 2007

  • reesetee Perhaps Potter partygoers are pooped. It's perfectly possible. Jul 25, 2007

  • uselessness And pickling peppers, perchance? Jul 25, 2007

  • jennarenn Yes, the Potter patter is petering out. Jul 25, 2007

  • reesetee I'm with u. I'm all Pottered out. Jul 25, 2007

  • uselessness More like Harry SNOTTER! Hee hee, I'm so witty. ;-) Jul 25, 2007

  • jennarenn Harry Potter uses one of these in book six. (Sorry u, it's not over yet.) Jul 25, 2007

  • reesetee Sounds like something that would kill you before the poison did. Blecch. Feb 21, 2007

  • sionnach I'm not familiar with the lord-satrap aspect, but it seems remiss not to mention the physical properties of a bezoar:

    a hard indigestible mass of material, such as hair, vegetable fibers, or fruits, found in the stomachs or intestines of animals, especially ruminants, and humans. It was formerly considered to be an antidote to poisons and to possess magic properties Feb 21, 2007

  • sionnach A related concept is that of mithridatism, which is the building up a tolerance by taking a series of gradually increasing doses over a long period of time until very high doses are tolerated.
    (Warning! Don't try this at home: it works for only certain types of drugs/poisons, depending on the nature of the primary toxicity).
    Mithridatism plays a key role in 'The Princess Bride', also in a very well-known murder mystery by ... well, better not to risk being a spoiler Feb 16, 2007

  • fbharjo protector from poison (harm): antidote: similar to lord or satrap Feb 11, 2007

‘bezoar’ has been looked up 1904 times, loved by 1 person, added to 44 lists, commented on 15 times, and has a Scrabble score of 17.