▪ I. hemlock, n.
(ˈhɛmlɒk)
Forms: α. 1 hymlice, hymlic, hemlic, 3 hemeluc, 5 hem(e)lok, 6 hemlake, 6–7 hemlocke, 7 hemloc, hemblock, 6– hemlock. β. 5 humlok(e, humblok, homeluk, -lok, 6 humlocke, homlo(k)ke, -lock(e, 5–9 (dial.) humlock.
[OE. hymlice weak fem., hymlic, hemlic, str. masc.; of obscure origin: no cognate word is found in the other langs.
The form hym- is app. the original, that in hem- being Kentish. The later hum-, hom-, probably come from hym-; the ordinary form in mod.Sc. is humlo'.]
1. a. The common name of Conium maculatum, a poisonous umbelliferous plant, having a stout branched stem with purplish spots, finely divided leaves, and small white flowers; it is used medicinally as a powerful sedative. b. Also in rural use applied to the large Umbelliferæ generally: in south of Scotland esp. to Angelica sylvestris, and to Heracleum Sphondylium, ‘Hairy Humlo’.
It is not clear how far back these uses go. The OE. hymlice was a medicinal plant (prob. Conium); but the ME. the plant is chiefly referred to as a weed; the definite references to it as poisonous appear to begin with the 16th c. herbalists.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 185 Cicuta, hymblicæ [a 800 Erfurt Huymblicæ]. c 725 Corpus Gloss. 463 Cicuta, hymlice. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 136/1 Cicuta, hemlic. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 18 Do to hymlican and eofor þrotan. Ibid. II. 74 Nim weax & hemlic, ᵹetrifula. Ibid. III. 50 Wyll in buteran nyoðerweardne hymlic. c 1265 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 558/3 Herba benedicta, i. herbe beneit, i. hemeluc. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xiv. 65 It es gude to sawe in humbloks and nettles and swilk oþer wedes. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 571/34 Cecuta, hemlok. c 1425 Voc. ibid. 645/21 Hic tipus, homelok. c 1450 Alphita 40/1 Cicuta..angl. hemelok uel hornwistel. 1483 Cath. Angl. 191/2 An Humlok, cicuta, harba benedicta, intubus. a 1500 Songs & Carols (1847) 10 (Mätz.) Whan brome wyll appelles bere, And humloke hony in feere, Than sek rest in lond. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Jas. iii. (R.), What is it elles than the poison of humlocke myxed with wyne? 1551 Turner Herbal i. K iv, In sum places men vse to eate the yong stalkes of homlokkes in sallattes. 1573 Tusser Husb. xxxiii. (1878) 74 Thy garden twifallow, Stroy hemlock and mallow. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxiv. 452 Hemlocke is very euyl, dangerous, hurtful, and venemous. 1597 Gerarde Herbal 904 (Britten & H.) The leaues shoote foorth of the ioints and branches like unto wilde Homlocks. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 44 Her fallow Leas, The Darnell, Hemlock, and ranke Femetary, Doth root vpon. 1605 ― Macb. iv. i. 25 Roote of Hemlocke, digg'd i' th' darke. 1635 Swan Spec. M. vi. §4 (1643) 266 Hemlock..is meat to storks, and poyson to men. 1699 Garth Dispens. ii. (1700) 14 Baneful Hemlock, and cold Aconite. 1758 J. G. Cooper Apol. Aristippus (R.), Deadly hemlock's pois'nous weed. c 1800 Yng. Tamlane lv. in Scott Minstr. Scot. Bord., Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill, The hemlock small blew clear; And louder notes from hemlock large, And bog⁓reed, struck the ear. |
c. With qualifying words, applied to various other umbelliferous plants with finely-divided leaves, as
bastard hemlock,
Anthriscus sylvestris (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
lesser h., Fool's Parsley,
æthusa Cynapium;
mountain h.,
Levisticum officinale (Miller
Plant-n.);
water h., various species of
Cicuta and
Œnanthe.
| 1764 Croker, etc. Dict. Arts & Sc., Cicuta-Aquatica, long-leaved water hemlock, a poisonous plant..growing in many meadows and watery places. 1788 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) 273 Cicuta, Water Hemlock. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvii. 231 The waters afford other poisonous herbs as Water Hemlock. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 305 Fool's Parsley, or Ciceley, Lesser Hemlock. |
2. a. A North American tree,
Abies canadensis, more fully
hemlock fir,
h. spruce, ‘so called from the resemblance of its branches in tenuity and position to the leaves of the common hemlock’.
| 1776 C. Carroll Jrnl. Miss. Canada in B. Mayer Mem. (1845) 49 Several rocky islands appear in the lake [George, N.Y.], covered with a species of cedar here called hemlock. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. xiv. (1847) 197 Forests of spruce⁓fir and hemlock, a kind of fir somewhat resembling our yew in foliage. 1841–4 Emerson Ess., Nature Wks. (Bohn) I. 224 The stems of pines, hemlocks, and oaks, almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. 1847 Longfellow Ev. Prel. 1 The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight. 1856 Bryant Poems, Catterskill Falls iv, The long dark boughs of the hemlock fir. 1892 Garden 27 Aug. 200 One came upon finely-developed specimens of the Hemlock Spruce..the Indian Cedar..and such-like ornamental trees. 1927 M. de la Roche Jalna xviii. 213 She stood..looking at the sombre shapes of the hemlocks. 1932 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 331/2 We come to that hidden glade, under the beeches, under the hemlocks. |
b. ground hemlock: a Canadian species or variety of Yew (
Treas. Bot. 1866).
3. A poisonous potion obtained from the common hemlock. (Believed to have been the poison by which Socrates was put to death.)
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 235 The..law of the Athenians, wherby malefactors..were forced to drink that odious potion of Hemlock. 1626 Bacon Sylva §643 The Death that is most without Paine, hath beene noted to be, vpon the Taking of the Potion of Hemlock. 1820 Keats Ode to Nightingale 2 A drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 21 Plato was twenty-nine years old when Socrates drank the hemlock. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
hemlock draught,
hemlock-drinker;
hemlock-like adj.; (sense 2)
hemlock forest,
hemlock lumber, etc.; also
hemlock chervil,
Torilis Anthriscus;
hemlock dropwort: see
dropwort 2;
hemlock parsley, a North American umbelliferous plant resembling hemlock, but not poisonous; there are two species
Conioselinum Canadense and
C. Fischeri;
hemlock pitch, the resinous exudation of the Hemlock spruce;
hemlock stork's-bill,
Erodium cicutarium;
hemlock tree = sense 2.
| 1761 Watson in Phil. Trans. LII. 91 This plant is called, by..Mr. Ray, Small *hemlock-chervil with rough seeds. |
| 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps v. §3. 138 Architecture..being especially dependent..on the warmth of the true life, is also peculiarly sensible of the *hemlock cold of the false. |
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. (1824) 38 Socrates his poison'd *hemlock draught. |
| 1824 Byron Def. Transf. i. i. 228 Be air, thou *hemlock-drinker! |
| 1856 Olmsted Slave States 155 An agreeable resinous odor, resembling that of a *hemlock forest. |
| 1862 Chambers' Encycl. V. 306 A..liquid, having..a penetrating *hemlock-like odour. |
| Ibid., Two priests ate *hemlock-root by mistake; they became raving mad. |
| 1813 Hogg Witch of Fife vii, Mine [steed] was made of ane *humloke schaw, An a stout stallion was he. |
| 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. II. 45 Erodium cicutarium (*Hemlock Stork's-bill). |
▪ II. hemlock, v. (
ˈhɛmlɒk)
[f. the n.] trans. To poison with hemlock. Hence
ˈhemlocked ppl. a.| 1846 Thackeray Cornhill to Cairo v. 66 Of the race of Englishmen who come wondering about the tomb of Socrates, do you think the majority would not have voted to hemlock him? 1908 L. Abercrombie Interludes & Poems 18 The slave Fate who serves Gods..fetched Skill'd poison,..and with this stew Hemlock'd the wine of Heaven. 1934 Dylan Thomas Let. 11 May (1966) 129 A twisted veil of evil..coils up from the pit to the top of the hemlocked world. |