cantharides

English

The Spanish fly (Lytta vesicatoria)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kænˈθæɹɪdiːz/

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, chapter 26, in Lud-in-the-Mist:

     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, published 2007, page 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.

Derived terms

• cantharidism

 

Latin

Noun

cantharidēs

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of cantharis