different between aphrodisiac vs cantharides

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ???????????? (aphrodisiakós, “venereal”), from ?????????? (Aphrodísios, “pertaining to Aphrodite”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æf.?o?.?di.zi.æk/, /æf.?o?.?d?.zi.æk/
• Hyphenation: aph?ro?di?si?ac

Adjective

aphrodisiac (not comparable)

1. Arousing or intensifying sexual desire.

Antonyms

• antaphrodisiac

Translations

Noun

aphrodisiac (plural aphrodisiacs)

1. Something, generally a food or drug, having such an effect.

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:anaphrodisiac

   • c. 1970, Henry Kissinger, quoted in The New York Times (28 October 1973)

     Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Related terms

Translations

See also

• Butea superba

Further reading

• aphrodisiac on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• aphrodisiac in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• aphrodisiac in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Latin cantharides, plural of cantharis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kæn??æ??di?z/

Noun

cantharides (uncountable)

1. Spanish fly Lytta vesicatoria (syn. Cantharis vesicatoria).
2. Spanish fly; a vesicant extracted from the beetle, popularly held to have aphrodisiac properties.
   • 1926, Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist, Ch.26:

     I can make the most subtle sauces yield up their secret—whether it be white arsenic, rosalgar, mercury sublimate, or cantharides.

   • 1964, Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like The Sun:

     Speaking her name, it was as if he spake pure cantharides. ‘Quick,’ she panted. ‘There is time before they are all about. Again.’

   • 1992, Will Self, Cock and Bull:

     It’s lucky that Carol had taken the precaution of obtaining some cantharides; without them the evening might have been a dead loss.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 612:

     Basically Louis's drug dealer and pimp, Richelieu, known for opium recipes to fit all occasions, is also credited with the introduction into France of the cantharides, or Spanish fly.

Latin

Noun

cantharid?s

1. nominative plural of cantharis
2. accusative plural of cantharis
3. vocative plural of cantharis