2 words pinned here
Jamestown
-15.9251°S -5.7179°W · Q30970
2 English words in this atlas trace back to Jamestown. It sits in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
jimsonweednoun · 18th century
Well attestedThe weed is a worn-down Jamestown.
Soldiers at Jamestown, Virginia, were poisoned by the plant in 1676. Jamestown weed contracted into jimsonweed.
Named from the placeRead →
Jamestown weednoun · 17th century
Well attestedJimsonweed is Jamestown weed, worn down by centuries of saying it fast.
Robert Beverley's 1705 history of Virginia describes soldiers sent to Jamestown in 1676 who boiled the plant as a pot herb and spent eleven days deranged before coming back to themselves. American speech clipped the name into jimson, hiding an entire colony inside a weed.
Named from the placeRead →