henbane
(ˈhɛnbeɪn)
Also 3 hennebone, 4 henebon, 5 henneban(e, henban, (hen(n)esbane), 6 henbayne.
[f. hen n. + bane. Cf. henbell.]
1. The common name of the annual plant Hyoscyamus niger, a native of Europe and northern Asia, growing on waste ground, having dull yellow flowers streaked with purple, viscid stem and leaves, unpleasant smell, and narcotic and poisonous properties; also extended to the genus as a whole.
| c 1265 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 559/9 Iusquiamus..i. hennebone. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxxxvii. (Tollem. MS.), Aristotel..seyeþ þat þe seed of hen bane is poyson. 14.. Rel. Ant. I. 55 For the goute..tak leves of the henbane. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxiii. 448 Of Henbane are three kindes..that is, the blacke, the yellowe, and the white. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Praise Hempseed Wks. iii. 68/2 No cockle, darnell, henbane, tare or nettle Neere where it is can prosper spring or settle. 1796 Coleridge To Friend writing no more Poetry 33 In the outskirts, where pollutions grow, Pick the rank henbane. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 213 Henbane..a viscid weed of waste places about villages, with dingy, purple-veined, yellow flowers. |
2. The drug extracted from this plant.
| 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge ix, The prospect of finding any⁓body out in anything would have kept Miss Miggs awake under the influence of henbane. 1859 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 3 The henbane I took in despair last night. |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xxxiii. (1495) 433 The sperrowe etyth venemous thynges wyth hote growinge henban seed. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 1081 Henbane juice to swell them till they burst. 1866 Sowerby's E. Bot. VI. 108 The baneful effects of the Henbane exhalations. |