[a. Fr. aconit, ad. L. aconītum, ad. Gr. ἀκόνιτον of uncertain etymol. The L. form aconītum is also used unchanged, especially in sense 2.]
1. A genus of poisonous plants, belonging to the order Ranunculaceae. esp. The common European species Aconitum Napellus, called also Monk’s-hood and Wolf’s-bane. Also applied loosely or erroneously to other poisonous plants.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 426. Aconit is of two sortes … the one is named … Aconit that baneth, or killeth Panthers. The other … Aconit that killeth Woolfs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. (1641), 27/1. Onely the touch of Choak-pard Aconite Bereaves the Scorpion both of sense and might.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 271 (1634). It groweth naturally vpon bare and naked rocks, which the Greeks cal Aconas: which is the reason (as some haue said) why it was named Aconitum.
1613. Heywood, Braz. Age, II. ii. 215. With Aconitum that in Tartar springs.
1697. Dryden, Virgil’s Georgic, II. 209. Nor pois’nous Aconite is here produc’d, Or grows unknown, or is, when known, refus’d.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxi. 298. Aconite has the upper petal arched; and three or five capsules.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wond., 91. The accidental substitution of aconite root or monkshood for horse-radish.
2. An extract or preparation of this plant, used as a poison and in pharmacy. poet. Deadly poison.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 48. Though it doe worke as strong As Aconitum, or rash Gun-powder.
1606. Dekker, Newes fr. Hell (1842), 87, note. Ingenious, fluent, facetious T. Nash, from whose abundant pen hony flow’d to thy friends, and mortall aconite to thy enemies.
1656. Cowley, Anacreont., i. (1669), 41. All the World’s Mortal to ’em then, And Wine is Aconite to men.
a. 1735. Ld. Lansdowne, To Mira, 21 (1779). Despair, that aconite does prove, And certain death, to others’ love.
a. 1868. H. Buck, Infant Life (ed. 3), 124. Aconite … this remedy has been aptly styled ‘The Homœopathic Lancet.’
1869. Daily News, May 26. She and the deceased had eaten the root of a plant called wolf’s-bane, the active poison of which is aconite.
3. Winter Aconite: Common name of another little plant of the same order, Eranthis hyemalis, having a yellow anemone-like flower springing from a whorl of leaves.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 379. Yellow Aconite, double scarlet and dwarf Lichnis.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxi. 299. The winter-flowering species commonly called Winter-Aconite, is the only one that drops its petals.
1879. Spectator, 6 Sept., 1127/1. The small yellow winter-aconite is more cheery than the lingering rosebud born too late to bloom.
