Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several fungi of the genus Claviceps, especially C. purpurea, that infect various cereal plants and form compact black masses of branching filaments that replace the grains of the host plant. Humans and livestock can be poisoned by ingesting ergot-infected grains.
  • noun The plant disease caused by such a fungus.
  • noun The dried sclerotia of ergot, usually obtained from rye seed and used as a source of several medicinally important alkaloids and as the basic source of lysergic acid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To infer; arrive at.
  • To draw conclusions.
  • noun In farriery, a stub, like a piece of soft horn, of about the size of a chestnut, situated behind and below the pastern-joint, and commonly hidden under the tuft of the fetlock.
  • noun A morbid growth arising from a diseased condition of the ovary of various grasses, caused by a fungus of the genus Claviceps.
  • noun In anatomy, the calcar. spur, or hippocampus minor of the brain.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A diseased condition of rye and other cereals, in which the grains become black, and often spur-shaped. It is caused by a parasitic fungus, Claviceps purpurea.
  • noun The mycelium or spawn of this fungus infecting grains of rye and wheat. It is a powerful remedial agent, and also a dangerous poison, and is used as a means of hastening childbirth, and to arrest bleeding.
  • noun (Far.) A stub, like soft horn, about the size of a chestnut, situated behind and below the pastern joint.
  • noun (Anat.) See 2d Calcar, 3 (b).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any fungus in the genus Claviceps which are parasitic on grasses.
  • noun The sclerotium (wintering stage) of certain fungi in the genus Claviceps, appearing as a deformed grain in certain cereals and grasses infected by the fungi.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fungus that infects various cereal plants forming compact black masses of branching filaments that replace many grains of the plant; source of medicinally important alkaloids and of lysergic acid
  • noun a plant disease caused by the ergot fungus

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French argot, cock's spur (from its shape), of unknown origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French ergot, from Old French argot ("spur").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ergot.

Examples

  • He identified acetylcholine as a constituent of certain ergot extracts, and an analysis of its action served as a basis for later researches, extending the application of Loewi's discoveries, which have been recognized in the joint award of the

    Sir Henry Dale - Biography 1965

  • Yes, corn ergot is somewhat rare, but you’ve probably seen it at least once in your life.

    Matthew Yglesias » Breitbart on Podesta 2010

  • Not a single defendant at the1692 Salem Witch Trials was burned at the stake...19 were hanged while a 20th, a man who refused to enter a plea, was crushed to death with heavy stones medical historians have ascribed the bizarre behavior exhibited there to various causes, such as an outbreak of encephalitis or rye bread contaminated by the hallucinogenic known as ergot!

    Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.: 15 Intriguing Halloween-Related Factoids! Ph.D. Dr. Franklin Ruehl 2011

  • An allegation arose at some point that Carroll used the fungus ergot, which is what LSD was eventually derived from.

    Think Progress » After Telling Women, Gays How To Live, Oklahoma GOP Outraged At ‘Government Intervention’ In Divorces 2010

  • Not a single defendant at the1692 Salem Witch Trials was burned at the stake...19 were hanged while a 20th, a man who refused to enter a plea, was crushed to death with heavy stones medical historians have ascribed the bizarre behavior exhibited there to various causes, such as an outbreak of encephalitis or rye bread contaminated by the hallucinogenic known as ergot!

    Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.: 15 Intriguing Halloween-Related Factoids! Ph.D. Dr. Franklin Ruehl 2011

  • The source of the affliction was a parasite on rye crops, a fungus known as ergot, which contains a series of compounds that among other characteristics causes the blood vessels to contract—hence the gangrene in the extremities.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • The source of the affliction was a parasite on rye crops, a fungus known as ergot, which contains a series of compounds that among other characteristics causes the blood vessels to contract—hence the gangrene in the extremities.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

  • The most important of these so-called sympathicolytic substances are the alkaloids which are found in ergot.

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1957 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • At the time, the outbreak was blamed on bread from a bakery called the Roch Briand that had supposedly become contaminated with a psychedelic fungus called ergot, which occurs naturally on rye bread.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2010

  • Mold-induced food poisoning called ergot or ergotism.

    歪酷博客 Ycool Blog 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.