What does curare mean?
Curare is a potent plant-derived poison traditionally prepared by indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Orinoco basins, who applied it to the tips of arrows and blow darts for hunting. Its active compounds block the transmission of nerve impulses to muscles, causing paralysis — but because it must enter the bloodstream to take effect, meat from animals killed with curare remains safe to eat. This same mechanism gave the substance a second life in medicine: purified forms such as tubocurarine were adopted in the twentieth century as muscle relaxants during surgery and electroconvulsive therapy. The name derives from indigenous South American words transmitted through early Portuguese and Spanish explorers' accounts. Today curare is chiefly a historical and scientific term, evoking both the ingenuity of traditional hunting practices and one of pharmacology's striking examples of a poison transformed into a therapeutic tool.
nounA black, resinous poison extracted from plants of the genus Strychnos and other South American species, traditionally used by indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Orinoco basins as an arrow poison; in medicine, its principal active component is used as a muscle relaxant during anaesthesia.
- The plant-derived poison itself, used by South American indigenous peoples to tip arrows and darts.
- The purified drug derived from it (notably tubocurarine), used in medicine as a neuromuscular blocking agent.
"The hunters tipped their blow darts with curare, a poison that paralyzes prey without making it toxic to eat."
"Amazonian hunters coated their blow darts with curare so that even small game would fall quickly."
"Before safer agents were developed, surgeons relied on curare derivatives to relax patients' muscles during operations."
Rarely used; curare is almost always treated as a mass noun, though 'curares' appears occasionally when referring to different varieties of the poison.
"Early explorers described several distinct curares, varying with the plants and recipes used by each tribe."
The Amazonian hunters' dart poison curare became a life-saving surgical drug — the same compound that kills prey on a blowpipe keeps patients safely still under the surgeon's knife.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of curare
Curare entered European languages through early Portuguese and Spanish accounts of South America, adapted from a word used by indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Orinoco regions for their arrow poisons; it was recorded by European writers from around the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onward. The underlying term is of Cariban or Tupian origin, though the exact source language is debated. Related regional names include ourari and urari, reflecting the varied indigenous sources from which different forms of the poison were made.
How curare is actually used
Curare is a formal or scientific term, most often encountered in discussions of ethnobotany, toxicology, or medical history. In modern clinical contexts, specific compounds such as tubocurarine are usually named rather than 'curare' itself. The plural is rare; the word is typically used as a mass noun.
Easily confused with curare
Curaçao is a sweet orange-flavoured liqueur (or a Caribbean island), whereas curare is a paralysing plant poison used on arrow tips.