[med.L. from Arabic, ultimately Persian. The Synonymia Arabo-Latina of Gerard of Cremona (died 1189) has ‘Tarasacon, species cichorei.’ This appears to have been a corruption or misreading of the Arabic name ṭarakhshaqōq or ṭarkhshaqōq, itself according to the Burhan-i-Kāti (native Persian lexicon), originally an arabicized form of the Persian talkh chakōk ‘bitter herb.’
Many corrupt forms of the name (due chiefly to misreading of unpointed similar consonants in a foreign word) are given by Ibn Baithar. ‘The reading ṭarakhshaqōn,… appears in the glossary of Ibn al Hashsha on the work of Razi’ (Devic in Littré Supp.), and appears to be the source of Gerarde’s tarasacon.)
a. Bot. Name of the genus of Composite plants (by Linnæus included in Leontodon) including the dandelion (T. Dens-leonis, T. officinale, or Leontodon Taraxacum).
b. Pharm. A drug prepared from the root of the dandelion, used as a tonic and in liver complaints.
1706. Phillips (ed. 6), Taraxacum or Taraxacon, (Gr.) the Herb Dandelion, or Sow-Thistle.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 36. Some principles of rhubarb and taraxacum might pass off in it likewise.
1857. G. Bird, Urin. Deposits (ed. 5), 436. Taraxacum, a popular cholagogue, owes its diuretic action … to a similar cause.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 425. Diuretic properties have also been ascribed to taraxacum.
