Also (4 chasee), 4–7 casia. [a. L. casia (cassia), a. Gr. κασία, ad. Heb. q’tsīsāh ‘a bark resembling cinnamon, but less aromatic, so called from being stripped off (f. Heb. qātsas to cut off, strip off bark),’ Gesenius. Wyclif’s word points to an OF. form with ch.]
1. An inferior kind of cinnamon, esp. the bark obtained from Cinnamomum Cassia; thicker, coarser, less delicate in flavor, and cheaper than the true cinnamon. More fully Cassia-bark.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. xliv. 10 [xlv. 8]. Myrre, and gutta, and cassia dropiað of þinum claðum.
1382. Wyclif, Ex. xxx. 24. Tak to thee swete smellynge thingis … of chasee [1388 casia] fyve hundryd sicles.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxviii. (1495), 621. Though men vse to wryte and to sowne Cassia wyth dowble S yet it sholde be wryten and sowned wyth oo syngle S.—Casia and not Cassia.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 15. Spyces … as ginger, pepper, mirabolanes, Cardamome, Cassia.
1611. Bible, Ps. xlv. 8. All thy garments smell of myrrhe, and aloes, and cassia.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 620. Cassia, which is now the substitute of Cinnamon.
1693. Sir T. P. Blount, Nat. Hist., 41. You may call the thicker Bark Cassia, and the thinner CINNAMON.
1871. trans. Schellen’s Spectr. Anal., § 41. 162. The spectrum … obtained from oil of cassia.
b. Also distinguished from 4, as cassia lignea.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxvii. (1495), 620. That one manere Cassia is callyd Cassia fistula and the other Cassia lignea…. Cassia lignea is the rynde of a lytyll tree.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4146/4. Fine Cinnamon 12 Bales, Ordinary Cinnamon or Cassia Ligna 153 Bales.
1883. Daily News, 11 Oct., 2/7. Of 1,600 boxes Cassia Lignea offered, 520 boxes sold at 32s. 6d., being easier.
2. The tree itself, Cinnamomum Cassia.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 8. A great wood of Precious trees, some of Cinomome & Cassia.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 373. Casia or Canell, a plant it is, which groweth neer to the plains from whence the Cinamon comes.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 347. Cassia … is a native of … the south of Asia…. The bark and buds are known in commerce as cassia lignea and cassia buds.
3. poet. A fragrant shrub or plant. This is partly a rhetorical use of the word from the Bible (Ps. xlv. 8), partly a reference to the casia of Vergil and Ovid, explained by Lewis and Short as ‘a fragrant, shrub-like plant, mezereon,’ thought by some to be Osyris alba Linn., by Prof. Daubeny to be Daphne Gnidium.
1594. Greene, Look. Glasse (1861), 135. This offering of … myrrh and cassia, freely I do yield.
1616. Bullokar, s.v. Casia, Poets understand often by it some sweet-smelling herbe.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 293. Through Groves of Myrrhe, And flouring Odours, Cassia, Nard, and Balme, A Wilderness of sweets.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 430. Beneath his Body, broken Boughs and Thyme, And pleasing Casia just renew’d in prime.
a. 1821. Keats, Epist. 271. And intertwined the cassia’s arms unite, With its own drooping buds.
4. Bot. A genus of trees, shrubs or herbs (N.O. Leguminosæ) distributed in numerous species over the warmer regions of the earth. The leaflets of several species constitute what are known in medicine as Senna leaves. The name Cassia fistula was given already in the Middle Ages, to one species, the Pudding Pipe tree, a native of India, but cultivated in Northern Africa, the West Indies, etc., which produces the cassia pods containing a pulp used as a laxative. Thence botanists have extended the name to the genus.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxviii. (1495), 621. Cassia fistula is the fruyte of an certen tree that beryth longe sede … the mery within is blacke and moyst and swete and is medlyd wyth certen whyte greynes.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, H v. Lentyl, roses, Licorise & a lytle of Cassia-fistula.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 97/1. Cassia … the Flowers are yellow, many growing together on a long stalk.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3940/3. Their Cargo’s, consisting of … Lignum Vitæ, Molosses, Cashia Fistula, Shruff [etc.].
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 545. Some manna and pulp of cassia may be dissolved in boiling water.
1866. Livingstone, Jrnl., ix. I. 235. Cassias and another tree … are now in flower.
b. Any medicinal product obtained from this.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., IX. 256. Purge the norice with cassia or manna.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. lxxxiii. 726. Gently purge with Cassia mixed with turpentine.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Cassia of the islands … is sent from the Antilles; where it is produced in such abundance, that the vessels, in their home voyages, use it as ballast.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. xxv. 225. The cassia, a shining hard yellow seed inclosed in a woody shell near sixteen inches long … with a black soft pulp as sweet as honey: this is considered as a very safe laxative.
5. attrib. and Comb., as cassia-bark, lignea (see above, 1); cassia fistula (see 4); cassia-buds, the unexpanded buds of several species of cinnamon, esp. Cinnamomum aromaticum, used like cinnamon or cloves; cassia-oil, common oil of cinnamon; cassia-pods, -pulp, the fruit of Cassia fistula (see 4); cassia-stick tree, a name of C. fistula; cassia-tree (see 2).
1851–9. Hooker, in Manual Sc. Enq., 426. An inferior kind of *Cassia Buds known as Lovengoopor is found at Madras.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 222. The *Cassia-stick Tree … The pulp that surrounds the seeds … is an easy gentle laxative.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 266. On the hills we saw a great many *cassia trees.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 225. The *cassia tree is a native of Malabar, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Java.
