licorice

noun

1. a Eurasian plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, of the legume family.
2. the sweet-tasting, dried root of this plant or an extract made from it, used in medicine, confectionery, etc.
3. a candy flavored with licorice root.
4. any of various related or similar plants.

noun

1. the usual US and Canadian spelling of liquorice

n.also liquorice, c.1200, from Anglo-French lycoryc, Old French licorece (also recolice), from Late Latin liquiritia, alteration of Latin glychyrrhiza, from Greek glykyrrhiza, literally “sweet root,” from glykys “sweet” (see glucose) + rhiza “root” (see radish); form influenced in Latin by liquere “become fluid,” because of the method of extracting the sweet stuff from the root. French réglisse, Italian regolizia are the same word, with metathesis of -l- and -r-.