背景:西欧的女巫与药物的使用有关,流产,致幻,有毒植物奇怪的是,这些协会没有得到第一手证据的支持,历史学家也不相信被定罪为女巫的人是草药学家。本地植物名称为分析巫术与植物的关系提供了未开发的来源。
目的:我们分析了乡土植物名称,表明它们与女巫和魔鬼有联系,以找出为什么这些物种和巫术有联系。
方法:我们构建了一个数据库,其中包含相关西北欧语言中的术语女巫和魔鬼。添加魔鬼是因为它与巫术有关。植物物种特征(例如,药用,毒性)进行评估,以确定这些性状与其名称之间是否存在非随机关联。
结果:我们遇到了1263个独特的白话名称-分类群组合(425个植物分类群;97个家庭)。大多数以女巫和/或魔鬼命名的物种都在菊科中发现,毛竹科,和玫瑰科。对于荷兰人来说,德语和英语我们证实了巫术名称和毒性之间的关联。致幻植物似乎与女巫的名字无关。对于荷兰人来说,我们发现了植物名称与药用和异类用途之间的显著关联,尽管我们没有发现与流产质量有任何关联。
结论:这项研究表明,在欧洲西北部有多种与女巫和魔鬼有关的植物。带有巫婆和魔鬼一词的植物名称可能以贬义的方式来命名有毒和杂草植物,并作为对其有害属性的警告。我们的研究为巫术及其相关植物物种的历史研究提供了新的见解。
BACKGROUND: Witches in Western Europe are associated with the use of medicinal, abortifacient, hallucinogenic, and toxic plants. Curiously, these associations are not backed up by first-hand evidence and historians are unconvinced that people convicted as witches were herbalists. Local plant names provide an untapped source for analysing witchcraft-plant relationships.
OBJECTIVE: We analysed vernacular plant names indicating an association with witches and devils to find out why these species and witchcraft were linked.
METHODS: We constructed a database with vernacular names containing the terms witch and devil in related north-west European languages. The devil was added because of its association with witchcraft. The plant species\' characteristics (e.g., medicinal use, toxicity) were assessed to determine if there were non-random associations between these traits and their names.
RESULTS: We encountered 1263 unique vernacular name-taxa combinations (425 plant taxa; 97 families). Most species named after witches and/or devils were found within the Asteraceae, Ranunculaceae, and Rosaceae. For Dutch, German and English we confirmed associations between witchcraft names and toxicity. Hallucinogenic plants do not appear to be associated with witch-names. For Dutch, we found significant associations between plant names and medicinal and apotropaic uses, although we did not find any association with abortifacient qualities.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that there is a wide variety of plants associated with witches and the devil in north-western Europe. Plant names with the terms witch and devil were likely used in a pejorative manner to name toxic and weedy plants, and functioned as a warning for their harmful properties. Our study provides novel insights for research into the history of witchcraft and its associated plant species.