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. 2021 May 4:8:977-979.
doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.04.010. eCollection 2021.

The ancient Greek roots of the term Toxic

Konstantinos Laios  1 , Spyros N Michaleas  1 , Gregory Tsoucalas  2 , Alexandros Papalampros  3 , George Androutsos  4
Affiliations

The ancient Greek roots of the term Toxic

Konstantinos Laios et al. Toxicol Rep. .

Abstract

In ancient Greek literature the adjective toxic (Greek: τoξικόν) derives from the noun τόξo, that is the arc. This noun according to the Liddell - Scott - Jones lexicon had several meanings. Apart from the meaning that someone is able to use a bow or the military department of the archers, the medical context of the term is that a substance has the characteristic of a poison. This concept of the term survived until today with little differentiation.

Keywords: Ancient Greek medicine; Arc; Byzantine medicine; Poison; Toxic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Odysseus slays the suitors of his wife Penelope (around 440 BC). Attic red figure skyphos from Tarquinia (Italy), Altes Museum Berlin. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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