Talk:anise

Different Biblical sense?

Chambers 1908 says "the anise of Matthew xxiii. 23 (Greek anēthon) is properly the dill". Equinox ◑ 14:04, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

I suspect Chambers is referring to the correct meaning of the Greek word in the NT text, rather than the meaning of the English word. In order to establish an additional sense in English, it would be necessary to show that the translators understood "dill" when they wrote "anise" and ideally find other attestations of the word where this meaning is clearly intended. That there was some confusion between the two plants seems clear from one of the earliest attestations provided in Early English Books Online: "Wherfore anise sede is good: in the place wherof dylle is wrytten / for the whiche dylle ye muste rede anise." (in other words, here the word "dill" is said to actually mean "anise"^[1] (1528); a possibly earlier work glosses the Latin word "anisum" (anise) as "anys" in English.^[2] (circa 1527). Aabull2016 (talk) 16:39, 4 January 2019 (UTC)