yage

noun

ya·​ge ˈyä-​ˌhā 

variants or yagé or less commonly yaje or yajé

: ayahuasca

Among students at Columbia University, Michael Taussig has a glamorous reputation. An anthropologist who specializes in South America, he has hung out with shamans and tripped on yage, a potent hallucinogen, dozens of times.

—Emily Eakin

Examples of yage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Soon, Lee asks Allerton to accompany him to Ecuador to find the yage, or as it’s more commonly known, ayahuasca. —Kevin Dolak, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Nov. 2024

He was obsessed with the idea that yage could enhance telepathy. —Ira Silverberg, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2024

While all this is going on, Lee has developed a fascination for a South American plant called yage (aka ayahuasca) that apparently gives users telepathic powers and has caused an intelligence war between the CIA and the Kremlin. —Damon Wise, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2024

Also popularly known as yage, ayahuasca has been used for thousands of years by Indigenous people in Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. —Kyndall Cunningham, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from American Spanish yagé, yajé, yahé, perhaps borrowed from a language in the Tukanoan family (spoken by American Indian peoples of southeastern Colombia and adjacent parts of Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil)

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

yage

noun

ya·​ge

variants or yagé also yaje or yajé

ˈyä-ˌhā 

: ayahuasca