ergot

Borrowed from French ergot, from Old French argot (“spur”), possibly of Transalpine Gaulish origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɜːɡət/

ergot (countable and uncountable, plural ergots)

1. Any fungus in the genus Claviceps which are parasitic on grasses.
2. The sclerotium (wintering stage) of certain fungi in the genus Claviceps, appearing as a deformed grain in certain cereals and grasses infected by the fungi.
   • 1980, Albert Hofmann; Jonathan Ott (translator), chapter 1, in LSD, My Problem Child‎, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN:

     Ergot first appeared on the stage of history in the early Middle Ages, as the cause of outbreaks of mass poisonings affecting thousands of persons at a time. The illness, whose connection with ergot was for a long time obscure, appeared in two characteristic forms, one gangrenous (ergotismus gangraenosus) and the other convulsive (ergotismus convulsivus).

• ergotamine
• ergotic
• ergotism
• ergosterol

• sclerotium

• ergot in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• ergot on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Grote, Roget, Trego, regot

From Old French argot, possibly from a Transalpine Gaulish radical arg (“pointed thing”).

• IPA^(key): /ɛʁ.ɡo/

ergot m (plural ergots)

1. spur of a male member of Galliformes
2. ergot

• “ergot” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).