Deadly Nightshade

Definitions: Deadly Nightshade

Deadly Nightshade

Noun

1. Perennial Eurasian herb with reddish bell-shaped flowers and shining black berries; extensively grown in United States; roots and leaves yield atropine.

2. Poisonous perennial Old World vine having violet flowers and oval coral-red berries; widespread weed in North America.

Specialty Definitions: Deadly Nightshade

Specialty Definition: Deadly nightshade

Deadly Nightshade is a well-known, hardy perennial shrub with the scientific name Atropa belladonna. Also known as belladonna, it is native to Europe and has become naturalized in parts of North America. Its genus is named after Atropos, one of the Three Fates. Belladonna comes from the Italian word for beautiful woman. There, women used a chemical from the plant to dilate their pupils because they thought it made them look prettier. Despite its name, deadly nightshade is not a particularily poisonous plant. This does not, however, mean that the plant is harmless or safe to ingest.

It is a member of the nightshade family. Technically speaking, it is not a "true" nightshade because it does not contain solanine.

The plant has dull green leaves. Its flowers are either purple or pink, which yield shiny black berries. It is a small shrub, and can grow to be about one metre tall. It is relatively easy to grow from seeds. Because of its name, it is not common as a garden plant. It is a weed in some places. It is hard to eliminate once it becomes established.

According to practicioners of witchcraft, nightshade is ruled by Hecate and can turn into an old hag on Walpurgis Night. It is also used in flying ointments. Of the twelve recipes for flyng ointments, six call for deadly nightshade.

All parts of the plant, especially the berries, contain the extremely toxic alkaloid atropine. The approximate lethal does for an adult is three berries, though fewer can be fatal. Symptoms of belladonna poisoning are the same as those for atropine and include dilated pupils, nausea, tachycardia, hallucinations, blurred vision, loss of balance, a feeling of flight, staggering, a sense of suffocation, paleness followed by a red rash, husky voice and confusion. Fatal cases have a rapid pulse that turns feeble. The antidote is the same as for atropine.

The plant is the most important source of atropine. In Europe, it is cultivated for that reason. Occasionally, the plants are used for recreational purposes, though this is dangerous for obvious reasons.

Modern Usage: Deadly Nightshade

Commercial Usage: Deadly Nightshade

Domain	Title
Books	Deadly Nightshade (reference) Deadly Nightshade (The Adventures of Shelly Holmes Series Case, No 3) (reference) Deadly nightshade : strange tales of the dark (reference) The sorcerer with deadly nightshade eyes ; followed by, The foundling at the bottom of the well : poems in verse and prose (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Deadly Nightshade [IMPORT] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Deadly Nightshade

Modern Translations: Deadly Nightshade

Language		Translations for "deadly nightshade"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Bulgarian		беладона (belladonna). (various references)

Czech		jedovatá rostlina. (various references)

Danish		galnebaer (belladona, belladonna, great morel), galnebær, belladonna (belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

Dutch		doodkruid (belladona, belladonna, great morel), wolfskers (belladona, belladonna, great morel), belladonna (belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

Finnish		lemmonmarja (belladona, belladonna, great morel), belladonna (belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

French		herbe empoisonnée, belladone. (various references)

German		tollkirsche (belladona, belladonna, great morel, nightshade). (various references)

Greek		μανδραγόρας (belladona, belladonna, great morel, mandragora, mandrake), άτροπος η ευθαλεία (belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

Hungarian		nadragulya (belladonna, mandrake, nightshade). (various references)

Italian		belladonna (belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

Manx		lus y vaaish (belladonna). (various references)

Pig Latin		eadlyday ightshadenay.(various references)

Portuguese		beladona (belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

Russian		красавка (belladonna). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		gluvo doba noći. (various references)

Spanish		belladona (belladona, belladonna, great morel, nightshade). (various references)

Swedish		belladonna (banewort, belladona, belladonna, great morel). (various references)

Vietnamese		cây belađon. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Ancestral Language Translations: Deadly Nightshade

Anagrams: Deadly Nightshade

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-d-d-d-e-e-g-h-h-i-l-n-s-t-y"
	-5 letters: deadheading, desalinated, lightheaded.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: Deadly Nightshade

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

44 65 61 64 6C 79 4E 69 67 68 74 73 68 61 64 65

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000100 01100101 01100001 01100100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01001110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01110011 01101000 01100001 01100100 01100101

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#68 &#101 &#97 &#100 &#108 &#121 &#32 &#78 &#105 &#103 &#104 &#116 &#115 &#104 &#97 &#100 &#101

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0044 0065 0061 0064 006C 0079 004E 0069 0067 0068 0074 0073 0068 0061 0064 0065

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Domain	Definitions
Food & Agriculture	Plant from the leaves and roots of which may be obtained the poisonous alkaloid precursors of various medically useful narcotics, chief among which is atropine. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
deadly nightshade	38
deadly nightshade picture	4
deadly nightshade plant	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	Atropa belladonna, Atropa bella-donna, Atropa Belladonna L.. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Deadly Nightshade

Definitions: Deadly Nightshade