Category:Hemlock

Hem"lock, n. Etym: [OE. hemeluc, humloc, AS. hemlic, hymlic.]

1. (Bot.)

Defn: The name of several poisonous umbelliferous herbs having finely cut leaves and small white flowers, as the Cicuta maculata, bulbifera, and virosa, and the Conium maculatum. See Conium.

Note: The potion of hemlock administered to Socrates is by some thought to have been a decoction of Cicuta virosa, or water hemlock, by others, of Conium maculatum.

2. (Bot.)

Defn: An evergreen tree common in North America (Abies, or Tsuga, Canadensis); hemlock spruce. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks. Longfellow.

3. The wood or timber of the hemlock tree. Ground hemlock, or Dwarf hemlock. See under Ground.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Hemlock - ,br>(1.) Heb. rosh (Hosea 10:4; rendered "gall" in Deuteronomy 29:18; Deuteronomy 32:32; Psalms 69:21; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; "poison," Job 20:16; "venom," Deuteronomy 32:33). "Rosh is the name of some poisonous plant which grows quickly and luxuriantly; of a bitter taste, and therefore coupled with wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18; Lamentations 3:19). Hence it would seem to be not the hemlock cicuta, nor the colocynth or wild gourd, nor lolium darnel, but the poppy so called from its heads" (Gesenius, Lex.). (2.) Heb. la'anah, generally rendered "wormwood" (q.v.), Deuteronomy 29:18, Text 17; Proverbs 5:4; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15. Once it is rendered "hemlock" (Amos 6:12; R.V., "wormwood"). This Hebrew word is from a root meaning "to curse," hence the accursed.