stramonium
(strəˈməʊnɪəm)
Also 7 strammonium, 8 stramonia.
[a. mod.L. stramonium (Parkinson 1629), strammonium (F. Columna 1592), stramonia (Fuchs 1542, given as Italian), of uncertain origin. Cf. F. stramoine (more usually stramonium), Sp., Pg. estramónio, It. stramonio.
The Russian synonym durˈman is said by Miklosich to be adopted from the Kazan Tartar turman, ‘a medicine for horses’. It seems possible that stramonia may be altered from an earlier form or a dialectal variant of the Tartar word.]
1. The solanaceous plant Datura Stramonium, the thorn-apple. purple stramonium: the purple thorn-apple, Datura Tatula.
| 1677 Grew Anat. Plants iv. iii. v. (1682) 188 The Seed-Case of Stramonium or Thorn Apple, is divided into Four Closets. 1694 Strammonium [see thorn-apple]. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Stramonia,..the Apple of Peru, or Thorn-Apple. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 357 Tender annual Flowers,..such as..double-flowering Stramonium. 1881 Harper's Mag. Oct. 648 See this long bouquet of Bouncing-Bet, stramonium and pansy. 1906 Tuckwell Remin. Radical Parson x. 140, I had seen a heavy profit reaped by a shrewd farmer who took it at a low rate on poppies, henbane, and stramonium. |
2. A narcotic drug prepared from this plant.
| 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 427, I have found the stramonium especially beneficial in cases of mania attended with little or no fever. 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 395 The properties of stramonium are regarded as anodyne and anti-spasmodic. |
3. attrib.
| 1840 Pereira Elem. Mat. Med. ii. 865 Stramonium seeds, bruised. 1856 G. B. Wood Therap. & Pharmacol. I. 809 Stramonium Leaves. Ibid. 810 Stramonium Root. 1868 Garrod Mat. Med. (ed. 3) 291 In extracting the alkaloids from corresponding parts of belladonna and stramonium plants. 1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 22 May 6/1 Stramonium cigarettes. |