![]() In the Middle Ages in Europe, it was sometimes burned at funerals. In their temples, the Greeks burned thyme to aid courage. ![]() Perhaps the th was dried by the smoke: it is thought that θύμον comes from θύειν thuein ‘burn sacrifice’. (If you’re lost, you can look in a dictionary and you will find it.) The upsilon, as ever, was rendered in Latin with y, which is why we have thyme after θύμον. Latin in turn got it from Greek θύμον ( thumon), but that soft “th” got dried to a “t” by its Latin retailers. Our word thyme, on the other hand, comes from Latin thymum (notice that the botanical version has changed from neuter thymum to masculine thymus), said with “t” as we do because Latin doesn’t have a “th” sound. That thymus is said with a “th” as in thigh, which is sensible since it comes from the Greek word θύμος ( thumos). My Larousse Gastronomique has dozens of recipes for it, and so there must surely be a way to keep it from being boring and gross, but I didn’t discover what. The thymus of calves is sometimes called sweetbread, which makes sense because it is neither bread nor sweet but the butchers want to sell it. The thymus is a gland near the sternum that, in humans, disappears by adulthood it plays a role in the development of the immune system. Thyme is supposed to be good for many organs, though I don’t know whether it is good for the thymus. You can also, supposedly, use a night thyme sleep aid to prevent nightmares. And along with treating laryngitis and coughs and helping digestion, thyme was thought by the ancients to be purifying and to protect from poison. It may not be true that thyme heals all wounds, but it does have antiseptic properties – it contains thymol, which is no mere folk remedy. If you do have a cough or sore throat, and you try a bit of real good thyme, it might even help. It is reminiscent of a mix of oregano and Vicks VapoRub, though it makes a much better seasoning (don’t ask). Fresh thyme, you see, has a curious vaguely mint-like flavour with a light burning sensation that makes your tongue suspect it might soon become numb. You can see yourself standing in an alpine meadow, and as you inhale the cool, dry air you cough, and you reach into your pocket and pull out a lozenge and suck on it. ![]() You will feel instantly as though you have been on a hike in the mountains. Take a bit of this fine thyme in your mouth and chew it with your incisors. Most of the thyme we don’t want stroke your pinching fingertips down the stem to take off the tight little leaf clusters, and pluck off the soft tip. That thyme may seem out of joint if you know the fresh item, which brings so much more and other. If someone near you tasted something and said “Wow, this is really… herbal,” you would probably expect it to have too much free thyme.īut that’s dried thyme. This rough thyme’s flavour, too, has an edge of dust in it, but mainly it’s about the average of sage and oregano. Its consistency is best described as needle dust. The thyme of the seasonings is most often seen desiccated you probably have a jar or bag of it in your kitchen. ![]() By extension it is the patron herb of the names of bistros and catering companies: About Thyme, Thyme to Dine, Thyme 4 Pasta, Meal Thyme, Wild Thymes, Thyme to Indulge, Nosh Thyme… also an enormous chain of maternity shops. Thymus vulgaris, called vulgaris not because crude but because common – as common as the wordplays of which it is the patron and protector herb. ![]()
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