hemlock
English
Conium maculatum, one of the umbellifers called hemlock
Tsuga heterophylla, one of the conifers called hemlock
Etymology
From Middle English hemlok, hemeluc, from Old English hemlīc, hymlīc m and hymlīce f (“hemlock, bryony, convolvulus”), of uncertain origin.
speculative etymology
Compare Old English hymele (“hop-vine, hops”), Old English humele (“bryony, widerton, hair moss, gold-hair, morning glory”), Danish and Swedish humle (“hops”), Icelandic humall (“hops”). Perhaps from Scythian, from Proto-Iranian *háwHmah (“ephedra; juice”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sáwHmas from Proto-Indo-European *sewh₁- (“to press out, extract”).
- cognates
- (from Sarmato-Scythian *haumala) Ossetian хумӕллӕг (xumællæg, “hops”)
- (from Sarmato-Scythian *hauma) Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀 (haoma), Baluchi [script needed] (hum), Persian هوم (hōm))
- (from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma) Sanskrit सोम (soma))
More at suck.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈhɛmˌlɒk/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (CAN) (file)
Noun
hemlock (countable and uncountable, plural hemlocks)
- Any of the poisonous umbelliferous plants, of the genera
- Conium, either Conium maculatum or Conium chaerophylloides.
- 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 41:
- There were bunches of wild garlic to keep out evil spirits, foxgloves for healing spells and hemlock and vervain for darker magic.
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- Cicuta, water hemlock plant.
- Conium, either Conium maculatum or Conium chaerophylloides.
- The poison obtained from these Conium and Cicuta plants. [from c. 1600]
- Any of several coniferous trees, of the genus Tsuga, that grow in North America; the wood of such trees. [from 1670]
- 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 380:
- The wind blows and the hemlocks wave their feathery leading shoots. Such a graceful profile, so elegant a tree.
Synonyms
- (Conium):, devil's bread, devil's porridge, herb bennet, poison hemlock, poison parsley, Conium maculatum, Conium chaerophylloides
- (Cicuta): beaver poison, cowbane, musquash root, poison parsnip, spotted corobane, water hemlock
Derived terms
- eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
- Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
- Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana)
- Taiwan hemlock, Chinese hemlock (Tsuga chinensis)
- northern Japanese hemlock (Tsuga diversifolia)
- Himalayan hemlock (Tsuga dumosa)
- Forrest's hemlock (Tsuga forrestii)
- western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
- southern Japanese hemlock (Tsuga sieboldii)
- mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana)
- poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)
- hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae)
- hemlock water parsnip (Sium suave)
Translations
poisonous plant of genus Conium
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poisonous plant of genus Cicuta — see cowbane
poison
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tree
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