toxic

toxic

See also: tòxic

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French toxique, from Late Latin toxicus (“poisoned”), from Latin toxicum (“poison”), from Ancient Greek τοξικόν (toxikón) [φάρμακον (phármakon)] ("poison for use on arrows"), from τοξικός (toxikós, “pertaining to arrows or archery”), from τόξον (tóxon, “bow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒk.sɪk/

  • Audio (RP)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑk.sɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɒksɪk

Adjective

toxic (comparative more toxic, superlative most toxic)

1. (toxicology, pharmacology) Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.

   Synonyms: poisonous, venomous

   Tobacco smoke contains many toxic substances.

   • 2019 December 8, Hannah Beech; Ryn Jirenuwat, “The Price of Recycling Old Laptops: Toxic Fumes in Thailand’s Lungs”, in New York Times‎:

     If some types of electronic waste aren’t incinerated at a high enough temperature, dioxins, which can cause cancer and developmental problems, infiltrate the food supply. Without proper safeguarding, toxic heavy metals seep into the soil and groundwater.

2. (medicine) Appearing grossly unwell; characterised by serious, potentially life-threatening compromise in the respiratory, circulatory or other body systems.

   The child appeared toxic on arrival at the hospital.

3. (figurative) Severely negative or harmful.

   a toxic environment that promoted bullying

4. (figurative, of a person) Hateful or strongly antipathetic.

   It is not good to be around toxic people.

   • 2020 April 23, Cal Newport, “'Expert Twitter' Only Goes So Far. Bring Back Blogs”, in Wired‎:

     Though Twitter is still overrun with toxic anger and fear-based nonsense (now more than ever), it is also, in one crucial way, beginning to play an important role in our response to the pandemic.

Derived terms

• aerotoxic
• cytotoxic
• mycotoxic
• toxicity
• toxic shock

 

Related terms

• toxin (noun)
• intoxicate

Translations

having a harmful chemical nature

Arabic: سَامّ‎ (sāmm) Armenian: թունավոր (hy) (tʿunavor) Asturian: tóxicu Breton: pistrius (br) Bulgarian: токсичен (toksičen) Catalan: tòxic (ca), verinós (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 有毒的 (yǒudú de) Czech: otravný, toxický (cs) Danish: giftig (da), toksisk Dutch: giftig (nl), toxisch (nl) Esperanto: toksa Estonian: mürgine, toksiline Finnish: myrkyllinen (fi), toksinen (fi) French: toxique (fr) Galician: tóxico Georgian: ტოქსიკური (ṭoksiḳuri) German: giftig (de), toxisch (de), gesundheitsschädlich (de) Greek: τοξικός (el) (toxikós), δηλητηριώδης (el) (dilitiriódis) Hebrew: רעיל‎ (he) (rayil) Hungarian: mérgező (hu) Ido: toxika (io) Irish: nimhiúil, tocsaineach Italian: tossico (it) Japanese: 毒性 (ja) (dokusei) Khmer: ពុល (km) (pul) Korean: 유독 한 (yudok han) Latvian: indīgs, toksisks Lithuanian: toksiškas Luxembourgish: gëfteg Manx: ard-physhoonagh (deadly poisonous) Maori: paitini, tāoke Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: giftig (no), toksisk Nynorsk: giftig (nn), toksisk Persian: زهری‎ (fa) Polish: toksyczny (pl) Portuguese: tóxico (pt) Romanian: toxic (ro) Russian: токси́чный (ru) (toksíčnyj), ядови́тый (ru) (jadovítyj) Sanskrit: विष (sa) (viṣa) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: то̀ксичан Roman: tòksičan (sh) Slovak: otravný, toxický (sk) Slovene: strupen (sl) Spanish: tóxico (es) Swedish: giftig (sv), toxisk (sv) Thai: เป็นพิษ (bpen-pít) Turkish: toksik (tr) Ukrainian: отруйний (otrujnyj), токсичний (toksyčnyj) Vietnamese: độc (vi) Yiddish: טאָקסיש‎ (toksish), סמיק‎ (samik)

appearing grossly unwell

Bulgarian: отровен (bg) (otroven) German: in kritischem Zustand, in Lebensgefahr

severely negative or harmful

German: vergiftet (de), verdorben (de), äußerst schädlich, gefährlich (de) Polish: toksyczny (pl)

hateful or strongly antipathetic

Dutch: haatdragend (nl), kwaadaardig (nl) German: giftig (de), gehässig (de), boshaft (de), hasserfüllt (de), feindselig (de) Polish: toksyczny (pl)

Further reading

• toxic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “toxic”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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Interlingua

Adjective

toxic (comparative plus toxic, superlative le plus toxic)

1. toxic (chemically noxious to health)

Related terms

• toxicitate

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French toxique, Latin toxicus, from Ancient Greek τοξικόν (toxikón). See also toapsec.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtok.sik/, /tokˈsik/

Adjective

toxic m or n (feminine singular toxică, masculine plural toxici, feminine and neuter plural toxice)

1. toxic

Declension

Declension of toxic

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	toxic		toxică	toxici	toxice
	definite	toxicul		toxica	toxicii	toxicele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	toxic		toxice	toxici	toxice
	definite	toxicului		toxicei	toxicilor	toxicelor

Synonyms

• otrăvicios
• otrăvitor

Related terms

• intoxica
• toapsec