hellebore
(ˈhɛlɪbɔə(r))
Forms: 5 el(l)ebre (-bur, -byr, eleure), 6–7 el(l)ebor(e, 6–8 hellebor, (7 helebore, -bour), 6– hellebore. Also in L. form helleborus, -um.
[ad. L. elleborus, in 14th c. F. ellebore (Oresme), a. Gr. ἑλλέβορος, more rarely ἐλλ-. (The native L. equivalent was veratrum.) The initial h has been restored in Botanical Latin and in Eng. after the prevailing Gr. form.]
1. A name given by the ancients to certain plants having poisonous and medicinal properties, and esp. reputed as specifics for mental disease; identified with species of Helleborus and Veratrum; now, in botany, applied to the species of Helleborus, (N.O. Ranunculaceæ), including the Christmas Rose and its congeners: a. the plant; b. the drug.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 1044 This wermot, and eleure [eleborus]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 138/1 Elebre, herbe (K., P. elebyr), eleborus. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. xix. (1634) 730 margin, Anticyra where groweth Hellebor, a good purgation for phrenticke heads. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 30 Plants, which abound less with Rosin, such as Hellebore. 1882 Garden 28 Jan. 56/2 Hellebores..are at present almost the only occupants in flower in outdoor gardens. |
| b. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 83 Sle [worms] wiþ þe ius of calamynte..eiþer wiþ decoccioun of elebre. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie i. i. 172 As methodist Musus kild with Hellebore. 1652 Bp. Hall Invisible World ii. i, These errors are more fit for hellebore than for theological conviction. 1692 E. Walker Epictetus' Mor. xxxviii, As whether..Hellebore can purge a Mad-man's Head. 1830 Scott Demonol. vii. 204 Wretches fitter for a course of hellebore than for the stake. 1884 Tennyson Becket IV. ii. 165 Such strong hate-philtre as may madden him—madden Against his priest beyond all hellebore. |
2. With qualifying word, denoting:
a. species of the genus
Helleborus:
black hellebore, (
a) of the ancients,
H. officinalis; (
b) of some moderns, the Christmas Rose,
H. niger;
green hellebore, also called
bastard hellebore or
wild black h.,
H. viridis;
stinking or
fetid hellebore,
H. fetidus;
Oriental or
East Indian hellebore,
H. orientalis;
b. of the genus
Veratrum (N.O.
Melanthaceæ), sometimes called
false hellebore:
white hellebore (of the ancients),
V. album;
swamp hellebore,
V. viride, also called
American hellebore or
green hellebore.
c. winter hellebore, the Winter Aconite,
Eranthis hyemalis.
| [1390 Gower Conf. III. 130 His [Argol's] herbe, which is him betake, Is hote eleborum the blacke. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lv. (1495) 635 Eleborus..the Romayns calle this herbe Veratrum..and therof is two manere of kyndes: whyte and blacke.] 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxiv. 348 White Ellebor vnprepared, and taken out of time and place..is very hurtfull to the body. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 52 Dead sleeping Poppy, and black Hellebore. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 34 In the fit, blow Powder of White Hellebore up the nose. 1778 G. White Selborne Let. xli. (1875) 249 Helleborus fœtidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or setterwort..women give the leaves powdered to children troubled with worms. Helleborus viridis, green hellebore. 1858 Hogg Veg. Kingd. 737 White Hellebore (Veratrum album), a native of the Alps and Pyrenees, is a violent emetic and cathartic. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 536 Black Hellebore has been used by some as a purgative emmenagogue, but is now very rarely if ever employed. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
hellebore-root.
| 1792 Osbaldiston Brit. Sportsm. s.v. Herbes, They put into a horse's counter a piece of hellebore-root. 1878 tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVII. 742 Hellebore-poisoning..results from the joint action of the two active principles contained in the plant. |
Hence
ˌhelleboˈraceous a., botanically related or akin to the hellebores (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1886);
ˈhelleborate a., mixed or prepared with hellebore;
helleboˈrein,
helleˈboresin,
helleboˈretin, and
heˈlleborin, chemical principles derived from hellebore:
helleˈboric,
a., of or pertaining to hellebore;
† helleboˈrose a., ‘full of hellebore’ (Bailey vol. II. 1727);
helleˈborous a., of the nature of hellebore;
† hellebory (
elebory)
= hellebore.
| 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1627) 35 Take the roots of white elebory, otherwise called neesing powder. 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 4 An Eleborous purge to make him disgorge the gall of his bitternesse. 1633 Hart Diet Diseased iii. xi. 272 His helleborate medicines. 1811 Byron Hints fr. Hor. 473 Tuns of helleboric juice. 1872 Watts Dict. Chem. VI. 695 Helleborin, C36 H42 O6, and Helleboreïn, C26 H44 O6, two glucosides existing in the roots of Helleborus niger and H. viridis..Helleborin..occurs but..sparingly in black, more abundantly in green hellebore..Helleboreïn is much more abundant in black than in green hellebore, but occurs in considerably larger quantity than helleborin, even in the latter..By boiling with dilute acids, it is resolved into helleboretin, C14 H20 O3, which separates as a dark violet-blue precipitate, and glucose..[Helleborin] is resolved by boiling with dilute acids, or more completely with a concentrated solution of zinc chloride, into glucose and helleboresin, C30 H38 O4. 1876 Harley Mat. Med. (ed. 6) 768 The activity of the root is due to two glucosides, helleborin, and helleborein. |