meetin' seed

English

Alternative forms

• meeting seed

Noun

meetin' seed (countable and uncountable, plural meetin' seeds)

1. (US, dialects) A seed from any of various herb plants (especially fennel, but sometimes caraway, dill, or anise), formerly eaten during church meetings to foster wakefulness, freshen the breath, or keep hunger pangs at bay.
   • 1906, Newell Meeker Calhoun, Litchfield County Sketches, page 134:

     Outside the door were a bed of fennel — meeting seed — and some rose bushes. Close by was the country store and post-office.

   • 1916, Catharine Melinda North, History of Berlin, Connecticut, page 43:

     […] fennel, dill, and caraway furnished meeting seed fresh from June to October, and dry from October to June again.

   • 2016 April 27, Kathi Keville, The Aromatherapy Garden: Growing Fragrant Plants for Happiness and Well-Being, Timber Press, →ISBN, page 152:

     Puritans tucked dill “meetin' seeds” into their Bibles to appease their appetite during long services. Dill perfumes soap and occasionally goes into perfume. The seeds make a good breath freshener.

References

• Richard Hopwood Thornton, An American glossary (published by the American Dialect Society)

Further reading

• 2006 June 6, Victoria Zak, The Magic Teaspoon, Penguin, →ISBN:

  Known to Pilgrims as meeting seed, fennel was chewed during church services to calm the stomach and keep hunger pangs at bay.

• 2002 June 3, Tanushree Podder, You Are What You Eat, Pustak Mahal, →ISBN:

  In the early US colonies it was called “meeting seed” because it was chewed for breath freshener during long church meetings.

• 2005, Patricia Telesco, The Kitchen Witch Companion: Simple and Sublime Culinary Magic, Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 259:

  In American history, the Puritans thought of fennel as a "meeting seed." Meeting seeds were the seeds of various herbs that parishioners chewed during church meetings to stay awake.