Etymology

belladonna

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Today it means: A plant, Atropa belladonna, having purple bell-shaped flowers and poisonous black glossy berries. Full definition →

Italian belladonna ← Medieval Latin blādōna
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belladonna · noun1

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromblādōna“nightshade”
  2. Italian · borrowed frombelladonna
  3. English todaybelladonna

Borrowed from Italian belladonna (altered by folk etymology: bella donna (“beautiful lady”)) from Medieval Latin blādōna (“nightshade”), of Gaulish origin. The folk etymology was motivated by the cosmetic use of nightshade for dilating the eyes.

Belladonna · proper noun2

See belladonna.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.