asafoetida
/ˌæsəˈfɛtɪdə/noun
asafoetida is a noun meaning “A resinous gum from the stem and roots of Ferula species such as Ferula foetida and Ferula assa-foetida, having a strong, unpleasant smell, with…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-S-A-F-O-E-T-I-D-A, and it appears about once in every 24 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of asafoetida is asafoetidas.
What does asafoetida mean?
noun
- 1
A resinous gum from the stem and roots of Ferula species such as Ferula foetida and Ferula assa-foetida, having a strong, unpleasant smell, with culinary and medical uses.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce asafoetida?
- /ˌæsəˈfɛtɪdə/
- /ˌæsəˈfiːtɪdə/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-asafoetida.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of asafoetida
- asafoetidas plural
- asafetida
- asfetida
- assafoetida
- assa-fœtida
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is asafoetida?
Asafoetida appears about once in every 24 million words in written English, the 148,541st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Asafoetida in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense resinous gum from wild fennel:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ase fétide |
| German | Asant, Teufelsdreck |
| Portuguese | assafétida |
| Spanish | asafétida |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does asafoetida come from?
Late Middle English, from Medieval Latin asafoetida, from Persian ازا / آزا (azâ, âzâ, “mastic”) + Latin foetida, feminine of foetidus (“bad-smelling”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).