darnel

From Middle English darnel, dernel, from Old Northern French darnelle ( > dialectal French dernelle, darnette), of Germanic origin, possibly Proto-West Germanic *darjan (“to harm, injure”).

Related to Walloon darne, derne (“stunned, dazed, drunk”), Middle Dutch verdarnt, verdaernt (“stunned, dumbfounded, angry”). The association with being dazed or drunkenness is due to the well-known intoxicating effects of the plant.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɑːnəɫ/

darnel (usually uncountable, plural darnels)

1. A species of ryegrass, Lolium temulentum, often found in wheat fields and often host to a fungus intoxicating to humans and animals.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:

     With harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, / Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow / In our sustaining corn.

2. Various species of Lolium, especially as a weed in wheat fields.

• (Lolium temulentum): poison darnel

• (various species of ryegrass): Persian darnel, white darnel, red darnel

• Darnell

• “darnel”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

• Lolium temulentum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Lolium temulentum on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Lolium temulentum on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• darnel at USDA Plants database (L. temulentum)
• darnel at USDA Plants database (L. persicum)

• Ladner, learn'd, reland, Randle, Rednal, learnd, enlard, aldern, Nadler, Lander, Lenard, larned, Randel, Larned, lander