Also cava, kaava, kawa; also AVA. [South-western Polynesian.] An intoxicating beverage prepared from the macerated (chewed, grated or pounded) roots of the Polynesian shrub Piper methysticum or Macropiper latifolium (N.O. Piperaceæ). Also, this plant, or its root.
1817. J. Martin, Mariner’s Acc. Tonga Islands, I. 268. Finow … proposed … to go into this cavern, and drink cava.
1866. Treas. Bot., 708/1. The root called by the Polynesians Ava or Kaya. Ibid. It appears that Kava has, like tobacco, a calming effect rather than an intoxicating one.
1890. Stevenson, Lett. (1899), II. 2. I hope some day to offer you a bowl of kava there, or a slice of a pineapple.
b. attrib. and Comb., as kava-bowl, -drinker, -drinking, plant, root; also kava-ring, a ceremonious gathering to drink kava.
1823. Byron, Island, II. ii. Strike up the dance! the cava bowl fill high!
1866. Treas. Bot., 708/2. All the lower classes of whites in Feejee are Kava drinkers.
1870. Meade, New Zeal., 302. When a kava-ring takes place … the time for speaking terminates with the expression of the kava.
Hence Kavain, Kawain, Chem. [Fr. kawaïne, Ger. kavahin], a crystalline resin occurring in the kava root (Morley & Muir, 1892).
1865–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., III. 445. Kawain, a crystallisable non-azotised substance, from Kawa-root. Ibid. (1881), 3rd Suppl. 1145. Kawain agrees in many of its properties with cubebin.
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 18. The root [of kava] contains … a neutral crystalline principle discovered in 1844 by Mr. J. R. N. Morsori, and called kavahine.
1887. Syd. Soc. Lex., Kavahin, Kavaïn, same as Methysticin.
