Forms: 6–8 cardamome, 7 -dumome, -damony, -damon(e, (9 cardemon), 7–9 cardamum, 7– cardamom. [ad. L. cardamōmum, a. Gr. καρδάμωμον, f. κάρδαμον cress + ἄμωμον AMOMUM; cf. F. cardamome.]
A spice consisting of the seed-capsules of various species of Amomum and Elettaria (N.O. Zingiberaceæ), natives of the East Indies and China; used in medicine as a stomachic, and also for flavoring sauces and curries. (Rarely applied to the plant from which the spice is obtained.) The only kind included in the British pharmacopœia is the Malabar cardamom, obtained from E. Cardamomum. b. Also occas. applied to the capsules of A. Meleguetta of Western Africa, usually called Grains of Paradise.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxxiii. (1493), 623. Cardomomum helpyth ayenst wamblyng and indygnacyon of the stomak.]
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 15. There begin spyces to be found as ginger … Cardamome, Cassia.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 122. Cardamom, or Graines of Paradise, are good to be drunke against the falling sicknesse.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 21. The lesser Cardamome is enclos’d in a Pod of the Length of a Child’s Finger.
1799. Southey, Nondescr., iii. Wks. III. 63. Give Boreas the wind-cholic, till he roar For cardamum.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. India, I. 11. Pepper and cardamums grow in abundance on the western coast.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 151. Cardamoms are shipped to this country from Ceylon, [etc.].
attrib. 1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 183. Powdered cardamum seeds.
1883. Athenæum, 21 July, 75/1. Cardamom gardens in Coorg.
