zythumhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zythum_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezythum, n.
First published 2007

zythumnoun

  1. 1608–
    In ancient Egypt: a kind of malt beer.
    Much of the word's continuing use is due to its status as the last word listed in several dictionaries (cf. quots. 1854, 1985).
    1. 1608
      For the better auoydance & purging out of the digested venome..giue the party Garlicke beaten with Zythum, vntill he vomit.
      E. Topsell, Historie of Serpents 62
    2. 1658
      In Hiberia toward the west and in Britany; whence Pliny, of Corn drink is made: Beer in Egypt, called Zythum, in Spain Caelia and Ceria, Beer in France and other Provinces.
      translation of G. della Porta, Natural Magick iv.xxi.149
    3. 1733
      This Kind of Drink will keep longer than the Zythum of the Ancients, which being made of nothing but Wheat boil'd in Water, soon turn'd soure, because they put no Hops into it.
      Art of Nursing (ed. 2) xii. 35
    4. 1791
      The ancients had their Zythum, or drink made from Barley; but it was reckoned very unwholesome.
      C. Dunster in J. Philips, Cider (new edition) i. 58
    5. 1854
      Zythum, a beverage: a liquor made from malt and wheat.
      Webster's American Dictionary English Language 1281/3
    6. 1868
      What will we drink? Median, or, rather, Babylonian beer, or Egyptian zythum, or domestic cider?
      Ladies' Repository November 340
    7. 1936
      An inebriating beverage named Zythum, evidently a beer of some kind, known to be made from barley, is also mentioned by Columella.
      Science Monthly April 364
    8. 1985
      You want to know the last time the Guardian..mentioned anything from aardvarks to zythum..then just a couple of seconds there it is: up on your screen.
      Guardian (Nexis) 18 July
    9. 2001
      For the thousands of years that the Egyptians were building pyramids they were brewing zythum to quench their thirsts, to satisfy their gods, nourish their appetites and to help them relax.
      Journal (Newcastle) (Nexis) 8 June 28

zythum, n. was first published in June 2007.

zythum, n. was last modified in July 2023.