Sarsaparilla

The word “sarsaparilla” may evoke images of languid belles and parched cowboys, but its etymology is decidedly less romantic. An Anglicization of zarzaparilla, it refers at once to various New World plant species of the genus Smilax, the roots of these vinelike plants, the extracts derived from the roots, the drinks flavored by the extracts, and the subjugation of American indigenes by the Spanish conquistadores who named it. The Spanish deferred to the native populations, however, in their approach to the plant as a promising medical find (and as an anti-syphilitic, first and foremost). Meanwhile, their North American counterparts did the same.