Saloop

Origin

A variant of salep ("flour made from orchid roots"), initially a key ingredient.

Alternative forms

• saloup

Full definition of saloop

Noun

1. (dated) An aromatic drink prepared from sassafras bark and other ingredients, once popular in London, England.
• 1835, London Medical and Surgical Journal, Volume 7, page 703,In simple ordinary diarrhÅ“a, a mixture is prescribed, consisting of two ounces of a decoction of mallow and saloop, and two drops of Sydenham's laudanum.
• 2003, Antony Clayton, London's Coffee Houses: A Stimulating Story, page 31,As an alternative to coffee — in periods such as the beginning of the eighteenth century, when it became expensive — a patron might request saloop.
• 2004, Tim Fulford, Debbie Lee, Peter J. Kitson, Literature, Science and Exploration in the Romantic Era: Bodies of Knowledge, page 261,He^Lamb reveals some of their tastes - their likes and dislikes, their humour. And, characteristically, he does so in a digression, that turns out not to be a digression at all, about saloop, a drink made from 'the sweet wood yclept sassafras' and sold at roadside stalls throughout London.

Derived terms

• saloop bush