bezoar
/ˈbiːzɔː
/ /ˈbɛzəʊɑː /noun
1A small stony concretion which may form in the stomachs of certain animals, especially ruminants, and which was once used as an antidote for various ailments.They induced him to swallow therapeutic potions of oriental bezoar stone from the stomach of a goat and boiled spirits from a human skull....
- An obstruction series or plain abdominal radiographs may be necessary to distinguish obstruction from parasites or bezoars.
- Endoscopy revealed a large gastric bezoar and a 2 x 3 em lower esophageal ulcer that was thought to be the source of bleeding.
2A wild goat with flat scimitar-shaped horns, found from Greece to Pakistan. The ancestor of the domestic goat, it was the best-known source of bezoars.
- Capra aegagrus, family Bovidae.
- Most of them depict the predator hunting its staple prey, the bezoar goat, or being hunted by men.
- The former project was targeted on seven species of large mammals and has identified the leopard, bezoar goat, and Armenian mouflon (Ovis orientalis gmelini) as taxa that deserve the most urgent conservation actions in the country.
Origin
Late 15th century (in the general sense 'stone or concretion'): from French bezoard, based on Arabic bāzahr, bādizahr, from Persian pādzahr 'antidote'.