hemlock
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɛmˌlɒk/
Forms: form: hemlocks
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 (hôm))
* (from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma) Sanskrit सोम (soma))
More at suck.
Senses: examples: text: Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.
ref: 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:
text: In the Tyrol, on May Day, it was the custom to smoke out witches by burning bundles of black and red spotted hemlock. In the eighteenth century hemlock was used for treating cancer, syphilis, and ulcers.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 113:
text: There were bunches of wild garlic to keep out evil spirits, foxgloves for healing spells and hemlock and vervain for darker magic.
ref: 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 41:
glosses: Any of the poisonous umbelliferous plants, of the genera
Conium, either Conium maculatum or Conium chaerophylloides.
glosses: Any of the poisonous umbelliferous plants, of the genera
Cicuta (water hemlock).
glosses: Poison obtained from these Conium and Cicuta plants.
examples: text: The wind blows and the hemlocks wave their feathery leading shoots. Such a graceful profile, so elegant a tree.
ref: 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 380:
glosses: Any of several coniferous trees, of the genus Tsuga, that grow in North America; the wood of such trees.
Synonyms: word: devil's bread
word: devil's porridge
word: herb bennet
word: poison hemlock
word: poison parsley
word: Conium maculatum
word: Conium chaerophylloides
sense: Cicuta
word: beaver poison
sense: Cicuta
word: cowbane
sense: Cicuta
word: musquash root
sense: Cicuta
word: poison parsnip
sense: Cicuta
word: spotted corobane
sense: Cicuta
word: water hemlock
Derived terms: taxonomic: Tsuga canadensis
word: Canadian hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga caroliniana
word: Carolina hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga chinensis
word: Chinese hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga canadensis
word: eastern hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga forrestii
word: Forrest's hemlock
alt: an interjection
word: gosh all hemlock
word: ground hemlock
word: hemlock leather
word: hemlock parsley
taxonomic: Sium suave
word: hemlock water parsnip
taxonomic: Adelges tsugae
word: hemlock woolly adelgid
word: hemlocky
taxonomic: Tsuga dumosa
word: Himalayan hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga mertensiana
word: mountain hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga diversifolia
word: northern Japanese hemlock
word: Patton's hemlock
taxonomic: Conium maculatum
word: poison hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga sieboldii
word: southern Japanese hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga chinensis
word: Taiwan hemlock
taxonomic: Tsuga heterophylla
word: western hemlock