philtre
English
Noun
philtre (plural philtres)
- Alternative spelling of philter (“kind of potion”)
- 1909, Charles Baudelaire, “The Irreparable”, in John Collings Squire, transl., Poems and Baudelaire Flowers:
- What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 65:
- Old witches in the cities and country-side throve upon the sale of death spells and love philtres. They also made a trade of abortificants, and frequently practised the whiles of the procuress.
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Verb
philtre (third-person singular simple present philtres, present participle philtring, simple past and past participle philtred)
- Alternative spelling of philter
Anagrams
- philter
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin philtrum, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek φίλτρον (phíltron). Unrelated to filtre.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /filtʁ/
- Homophone: filtre
Noun
philtre m (plural philtres)
- philter (a kind of potion, charm, or drug intended to make the drinker fall in love with the giver)
- 1857, Charles Baudelaire, “L'Irréparable”, in John Collings Squire, transl., Les Fleurs du mal:
- Dans quel philtre, dans quel vin, dans quelle tisane, / Noierons-nous ce vieil ennemi, / Destructeur et gourmand comme la courtisane, / Patient comme la fourmi?
- What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?
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Further reading
- “philtre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.