darnel

darnel (DAHR-nl) - n., any of several rye-grasses of the genus Lolium, esp. L. temulentum, that grow as weeds in grain fields in Europe and Asia.


Formerly considered poisonous, but the effects of consuming it was not from the seeds themselves but from a fungus related to ergot that can grow on them. Name has been in English since around 1300, from North French dialectal (i.e., Walloon) darnelle, from darne, dizzy/dazed, after the dizziness and lethargy that bread made from flour contaminated with toxic darnel causes, apparently of Germanic origin. (Note that the temulentum of the species name is from Latin temulent, drunken.)


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---L.