The ancient Greek roots of the term Toxic

Konstantinos Laios; Spyros N Michaleas; Gregory Tsoucalas; Alexandros Papalampros; George Androutsos

doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.04.010

The ancient Greek roots of the term Toxic

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

Authors

Konstantinos Laios¹, Spyros N Michaleas¹, Gregory Tsoucalas², Alexandros Papalampros³, George Androutsos⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of History of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
² Department of Anatomy, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
³ Department of Surgery, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁴ Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, Greece.

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.