What does wolfsbane mean?
Wolfsbane is the common name for several highly poisonous plants of the genus Aconitum, including blue monkshood, Aconitum napellus. The plants are native mainly to Eurasian mountain regions and are recognizable by their helmet-shaped blue or purple flowers, although appearance alone should never be used to identify them. Their leaves, roots, and other tissues contain alkaloids such as aconitine, exposure to which can produce severe gastrointestinal, neurological, and cardiac symptoms and may be fatal. In older writing, wolfsbane can also refer to a poison made from the plant. Its name comes from Old English, combining a word for wolf with bane, meaning poison or a deadly thing, traditionally linking the plant with the poisoning of wolves. Modern botanical writing often prefers the name monkshood, while the historical name remains especially evocative in literature. Wolfsbane is therefore both a striking example of a poisonous plant and a word shaped by medieval ideas of poison, danger, and folklore.
nounWolfsbane is any of several highly poisonous plants in the genus Aconitum, particularly the monkshood or blue monkshood. Its tissues contain toxic alkaloids, including aconitine, and ingestion can cause severe, potentially fatal poisoning.
- Any of the highly poisonous plants in the genus Aconitum, especially Aconitum napellus.
- A deadly poison made from a wolfsbane plant, historically associated with poisoning wolves.
"The blue flowers of wolfsbane conceal alkaloids capable of causing serious heart and nervous-system damage."
"The blue flowers of wolfsbane conceal alkaloids capable of causing serious heart and nervous-system damage."
"In the historical novel, the poisoner conceals a vial of wolfsbane tincture among his remedies."
The plural is used when referring to multiple plants or specimens; the word is also used collectively or as a mass noun for the plant or poison.
"Two wolfsbanes grew beside the mountain path."
The plant that sounds like a wolf-killing trick is really a warning: its roots contain aconitine, an exceptionally potent alkaloid associated with fatal cardiac arrhythmias.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does wolfsbane come from?
Wolfsbane was formed in Old English as wulfesbāne, a compound of the genitive wulfes, meaning “of a wolf,” and bāne, meaning poison or something deadly. The compound continued into modern English and developed senses referring both to the poisonous plant and to poison made from it. Its second element survives in related words such as baneful and banefully. The traditional explanation that wolfsbane was used to kill wolves is plausible, but it is difficult to separate securely from later folklore.
How wolfsbane is actually used
Wolfsbane is literary or archaic in general prose, while botanical and toxicological writing more often uses the genus name Aconitum or the common name monkshood. In modern usage it most often denotes the plant rather than the poison prepared from it. The name should never be treated as harmless or decorative, because all parts of the plant can contain dangerous alkaloids.