ptomaine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any of several amines, such as putrescine or cadaverine, produced when bacteria decompose animal or plant matter

   The laboratory identified a ptomaine produced as the tissue decayed.

2. 2
   noun

   food poisoning, under the obsolete belief that such amines were its direct cause

   The old medical report described the diners' illness as ptomaine poisoning.

From French ptomaine, coined from Italian ptomaina, ultimately based on Greek ptoma ("fallen body, corpse"). Nineteenth-century medicine wrongly blamed these products of decay for many cases of food poisoning, producing the historical phrase ptomaine poisoning.

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