SC - Question on tea

[Gaylin J. Walli]

Master A answered:

>Infusion is a perfectly good word for what [an herbal tea] is; you might also
>investigate use of the word "tansy", which, while it has been used to
>refer to an herb by that name, and an egg dish containing it, and I'm
>not aware of the source of that name, has also been used as a corruption
>for the word "athanasia", which means, roughly, "banishing death".
>Whether that usage has any link to the herb tansy I don't know, but I
>have heard "tansy" used to describe infusions of herbs other than 
>tansy itself.

In the vast majority of period sources that I've read for the time
period, "tansy" as a term for herbal infusion is not used. I've not
read all of them. Yet. :) But I've never come across the word tansy
in the sense to which you refer in anything late period (i.e post 1450).
Can you point me to a reference?

The link in usage to the herb doesn't come up in any of the dictionaries,
old or new, that I own, but perhaps someone with a copy of the OED
handy can  check.

In addition to the word "tea" I personally would look for these words:

broth
decoction
diffusion
infusion
oyl
syrup
tisane

I hope this helps.

Iasmin

Iasmin de Cordoba, gwalli at ptc.com or iasmin at home.com