Noun: hemlock
| Singular | hemlock |
| Plural | hemlocks |
Sample Sentences
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Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper. [1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:]
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In the Tyrol, on May Day, it was the custom to smoke out witches by burning bundles of black and red spotted hemlock. In the eighteenth century hemlock was used for treating cancer, syphilis, and ulcers. [1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 113:]
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There were bunches of wild garlic to keep out evil spirits, foxgloves for healing spells and hemlock and vervain for darker magic. [1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 41:]
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The wind blows and the hemlocks wave their feathery leading shoots. Such a graceful profile, so elegant a tree. [2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 380:]
Nouns inflected like hemlock
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle English hemlok, hemeluc, from Old English hemlīc, hymlīc m and hymlīce f (“hemlock, bryony, convolvulus”), of uncertain origin.
2. speculative etymology
3. Compare Old English hymele (“hop-vine, hops”), Old English humele (“bryony, widerton, hair moss, gold-hair, morning glory”), Danish and Swedish humle (“hops”), Icelandic humall (“hops”). Perhaps from Scythian, from Proto-Iranian *háwHmah (“ephedra; juice”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sáwHmas from Proto-Indo-European *sewh₁- (“to press out, extract”).
4. ;cognates
5. * (from Sarmato-Scythian *haumala) Ossetian хумӕллӕг (xumællæg, “hops”)
6. * (from Sarmato-Scythian *hauma) Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀 (haoma), Baluchi [script needed] (hum), Persian هوم (hôm))
7. * (from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma) Sanskrit सोम (soma))
8. More at suck. See: Middle English Nouns '
hemlok', Old English Nouns '
hemlīc', Icelandic Nouns '
humall'.
Verbs referencing "hemlock"
Finnish Nouns
hemlokki.