sassafras

name

1. A locality in Latrobe council area and the Meander Valley council area, northern Tasmania, Australia.
2. A locality in the City of Knox and the Shire of Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia.

noun

Etymology: From Spanish sasafrás, possibly from Latin saxifragus (“stone-breaking”) from the habit of certain plants growing in cracks in boulders. If this etymology is correct, it is a doublet of saxifrage.

1. A tree of species Sassafras albidum of the eastern United States and Asia having mitten-shaped leaves and red, aromatic heartwood.
2. A tree of any species in the genus Sassafras.
3. The bark of the root of this plant, used for medicinal and (mostly historically) culinary purposes and formerly a main ingredient in root beer.

   “our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a daily proportion of Bisket, which the sailers would pilfer to sell, give, or exchange with us, for money, Saxefras, furres, or love.”