Absinth or Absinthe ?
On October 07, 2007 in Back to basic
The French word absinthe can refer either to the liquor or to the actual wormwood plant (grande absinthe being Artemisia absinthium, and petite absinthe being Artemisia pontica).
The word derives from the Latin absinthium, which is in turn a stylization of the Greek αψινθιον (apsinthion). Some claim that the word means “undrinkable” in Greek, but it may instead be linked to the Persian root spand or aspand, or the variant esfand, which may have been, rather, Peganum harmala, a variety of rue, another famously bitter herb. That this particular plant was commonly burned as a protective offering may suggest that its origins lie in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *spend, meaning “to perform a ritual” or “make an offering.” Whether the word was a borrowing from Persian into Greek, or rather from a common ancestor, is unclear.
Absinth (without the “e”) is a spelling variation of absinthe often seen in central Europe. Because so many Bohemian-style products use it, many groups see it as synonymous with bohemian absinth, even though that is not always the case.
Source: wikipedia.org