| Definitions | | cantharis |
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noun (cantharides)
- (context, usually in plural) The Spanish fly, Lytta vesicatoria, taken to have aphrodisiac properties.
- 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.
Etymology: From Latin, cantharis, from Ancient Greek (polytonic, ).
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