Origin of Jimson Weed Name

We were talking earlier about jimsonweed, but we didn’t talk about the origin of the term jimsonweed.

Oh, yeah, that’s a good one.

It goes back to the word Jamestown, the name of the place in Virginia.

And there’s an account of these British soldiers there in 1676 who ate some of this and lived to regret it.

They gathered it and ate it as a salad.

And there’s an account of what happened next after they ate this hallucinogenic plant.

Is this a radio safe?

Yeah.

Okay.

Mostly.

It says, some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days.

One would blow up a feather in the air.

Another would dart straws at it with much fury.

And another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mouths, that’s grimaces, at them.

A fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.

A droll being a kind of small, funny play.

I think so, yeah.

Wow, yeah.

So, jimps and weed is a hallucinogenic.

Yes, do not try this at home or anywhere.

It can kill you.

It can kill you.

And if it doesn’t kill you, it could leave you permanently damaged.

Or embarrassed.

You know, this is the age of social media.

You don’t want to be doing that.

But anyway, Jimson Weed derives from the term Jamestown.

Very interesting.

Language is weird.

It’s filled with strange pathways and odd histories.

This is something we love to talk about on the show.

But if you’ve got anything to do with language, a question or a comment or a word that you coined or someplace in the language that we need a word, let us know, 877-929-9673.