Also 5 condyment. [a. F. condiment, ad. L. condīment-um, f. condī-re to preserve, pickle: see CONDITE a.1] Anything of pronounced flavor used to season or give relish to food, or to stimulate the appetite.
(Some medical writers class tea, coffee, alcoholic drinks, as condiments; but they are not ordinarily so called.)
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., XI. 503. This condyment is esy and jocounde. Ibid., XII. 351. This moone is made olyve in condyment.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 630. As for Raddish, and Tarragon … they are for Condiments.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxii. Many things are swallowed by animals … for condiment, gust or medicament.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, ii. He proceeded to spread the board … with salt, spices, and other condiments.
1869. Rogers, in Adam Smith’s W. N., I. Editor’s Pref. 29. The intense desire to obtain those Eastern condiments.
b. fig.
c. 1430. trans. T. à Kempis, 109. Make it sauory wiþ þe condiment of þy wisdom.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. (1686), III. xix. 218. Hope … is the incentive, the support, the condiment of all honest labour.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., viii. 262. The virtues of Jesuitism, seasoned with that fatal condiment.
1896. A. D. White, Hist. Warfare of Science with Theology, II. 223. As salt is the condiment of food, so the salt statue of Lot’s wife ‘gives us a condiment of wisdom.’
