Forms: 4 cucubes, 4–5 qui-, quybib(e, -yb(e, 6 -ibbe, 5–6 cubibe, -ube, 7 -ub, 6–7 -ebe, 7– cubeb. [a. Fr. cubèbe (14th c. in Littré) = Pr., Sp., It. and med.L. cubēba, ad. Arab. kabābah. In OF. also quibibes (in W. de Biblesworth), quybybes, cucubes (in MSS. of Mandeville, 14th c.), whence the ME. variants.]
The berry of a climbing shrub Piper Cubeba or Cubeba officinalis, a native of Java and the adjacent islands; it resembles a grain of pepper, and has a pungent spicy flavor, and is used in medicine and cookery. (Usually in pl. cubebs, which in pharmacy is sometimes construed as a collect. sing.) African cubebs: the fruit of an allied African species, Piper clusii.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6796. Theo gilofre, quybibe, and mace.
c. 1305. Land of Cokaygne, 78, in E. E. P. (1862), 158. Of cucubes þer n’is no lakke.
c. 1314. Rembrun, v. Clowes, quibibes, gren de Paris.
c. 1400. Maundev., 50. The Fruyt, the whiche is as Quybybes, thei clepen Abebissam [Fr. le fruit qest come quibibes (v.r. cucubes, cubes, quybybes)].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 421/1. Quybybe, spyce, quiparum.
1555. Eden, Decades, 238. Cububes which growe in the Ilande of Iaua.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 175. Cubebs strengthen a weake and windy stomach.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 172. Take … cubebs, cardamony … of eache one ounce and a half.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 174. The Cubebs of the shops … are the dried fruit of Piper cubeba.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 504. In some respects, cubebs, when taken internally, resembles black pepper in its effects.
b. attrib., as cubeb pepper (= prec.), cubeb tree.
1693. Phil. Trans., XVII. 619. The Cubeb-Tree … from Bengal.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 106–7. Cubeb pepper, used in medicine.
Hence Cubebene, the chief constituent of oil of cubebs; Cubebic acid, a resinous acid obtained from cubebs; hence Cubebate, a salt of this acid; Cubebin, a crystalline substance existing in cubebs.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med., 436. Hydrate of cubebene or camphor of cubebs.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 505. Ten grammes of the cubebate of magnesium.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 896. A peculiar substance, to which he has given the name of cubebin.
