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

More at suck.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈhɛmˌlɒk/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (CAN)(file)

Noun

hemlock (countable and uncountable, plural hemlocks)

  1. Any of the poisonous umbelliferous plants, of the genera
    1. Conium, either Conium maculatum or Conium chaerophylloides.
      • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:
        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.
      • 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.
    2. Cicuta, water hemlock plant.
  2. The poison obtained from these Conium and Cicuta plants. [from c. 1600]
  3. 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

Derived terms

Translations
poisonous plant of genus Cicuta — see cowbane
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