sb. Herb. Obs. [Apparently a. Gr. ἄλιμον, ‘a shrubby plant growing on the shore, perh. salt-wort,’ Liddell & Scott; prop. neut. (sc. φυτόν) of ἄλιμος maritime. Confused by early herbalists with Gr. ἄλῑμον, ‘banishing hunger,’ whence this attribute ascribed to the plant.]
A plant fabled to dispel hunger; perh. Atriplex halimus of the Levant, identified by modern botanists with the ἄλιμον of the Greeks.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, III. 17 b. Gesante an Alimon proper…. The Herbe aforesaide, which he beareth, is of that nature, that it will not suffer them that taste it, to be hungrye.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 128. Ther is an herb … called Alimon: about which writers haue erred not a little.
