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bel·la·don·na

(bĕl′ə-dŏnə)

1. A poisonous perennial herb (Atropa belladonna) native to Eurasia and northern Africa and naturalized in parts of North America, having nodding, purplish-brown, bell-shaped flowers and glossy black berries. Also called deadly nightshade.

2. An alkaloidal extract or tincture derived from this plant and used in medicine.

[Italian : bella, feminine of bello, beautiful (from Latin bellus; see deu-² in the Appendix of Indo-European roots) + donna, lady; see DONNA (the plant perhaps being so called because women of Italian courts during the Renaissance are said to have used the juice of belladonna berries to make their eyes more attractive by dilating their pupils) .]

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belladonna

fruit and flower of the belladonna plant

Atropa belladonna

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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