[From China the country, whence brought to Europe; early names were Radix Chinæ and Tuber Chinæ; the Ayeen Akb. (Pers.) calls it chob-chīnī ‘China-wood’; cf. Pg. raiz de China, pao de China, (F. bois d’eschine). The French synonym esquine, squine, and mod.Lat. schina, point to confusion with some other word.
(App. with med.L. schīnus mastic tree: cf. Susannah (Daniel xiii.) 54 sub schino, LXX. ὐπὸ σχῖνον.)]
1. The thick fleshy root-stock of a shrubby climbing plant (Smilax China L.) closely akin to Sarsaparilla, and once supposed to possess great medicinal virtues.
a. China root.
[1563. Garcia de Orta, Simples, 177. Alguma raiz ou pao de China.]
1587. T. Hariot, Virginia, in Hakluyt (1599), II. 272. The China root brought from the East Indies.
1598. W. Phillips, Linschoten’s Trav. Ind. (1864), 195. They heale them with the root China.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. xv. 409. China affords Drugs in great abundance; especially China Root.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. i. 19. Take … 3 Ounces of China Roots.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1066. China root … first introduced from China in A.D. 1535, as an infallible remedy for gout.
b. China.
1582. Hester, Secr. Phiorav., III. xlvii. 67. This China is a roote like vnto the roote of Canna, the whiche is brought vnto vs, out of India, from an Ile called China, from whence it tooke his name China.
1633. Gerard’s Herbal, App. xxv. China … to cure the French Pox.
1699. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Aristippus,… a Decoction of Sarsa, China, &c.
2. American or Bastard China: the root of Smilax pseudo-China of W. Indies and Carolina, still employed in America as an alterative medicine; Carolina China-root, Smilax tamnoides; West Indian China-root (Cissus sicyoides), a tropical plant closely resembling the vine.
1580. Frampton, Joyfull Newes, 13 b. He said … that not only was there in the newe Spaine the China, but [etc.].
1633. Gerard’s Herbal, App. xxv. 1617. Of China, and Bastard China.
1673. in Fox Bourne, Locke (1876), I. vi. 326. By the last fleet I sent you a parcel of Carolina china-root.
1730. Mortimer, Carolina, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 432. Smilax, the Inhabitants of Carolina … call it there China-Root.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 359. China-root is frequent in the more cool inland parts of Jamaica.
3. Comb., as China-ale, ale flavored with China-root, whence China-alehouse; China-broth, broth made with China-root.
1659. Newton, in Brewster, Life, i. 18. Otiose et frustra expensa, sherbet and reaskes, *China ale, Beere.
1662–3. Pepys, 17 Jan. Thence with him to the *China ale-house.
1713. Lond. & Country Brewer, III. (1743), 193. To make China-Ale. To six Gallons of Ale take 1/4 lb. or more of China-root thin sliced, [etc.].
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. II. ii. (1651), 75. A dyet drink in the morning, Cock-broth, China-broth.
