Also 7 in Eng. form cicute. [L. cicūta, the hemlock given as poison.] A genus of poisonous umbelliferous plants, represented in Britain by the Water Hemlock, C. virosa. Formerly a name of the Common Hemlock.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxli. (1495), 698. Infected wyth the juys Cicuta that is venym of venyms.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 52. Cicuta bad, with which th’ uniust Atheniens made to dy Wise Socrates.
1635. Culverwell, White Stone, 162. This sweetned Socrates his cicute.
1774. in T. J. Pettigrew, Mem. J. C. Lettsom (1817), III. 156. I have observed good effects from the use of the cicuta in the hooping-cough.
1876. trans. Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., VI. 726. Chloroform, hyoscyamus, cicuta, nicotine … may be of use in diminishing the violence of the fits of coughing.
Hence Cicutene, Cicutine, Cicutoxin, chemical principles or compounds obtained from Cicuta.
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 963. Cicutine, an alkaloid … said to exist in the water-hemlock, Cicuta virosa.
1881. Syd. Soc. Lex., Cicutene, a volatile oil obtained from Cicuta virosa. Cicutoxin, the resinous, active constituent of Cicuta.
