dwale

/dweɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English dwale (“stupor; deception; delusion, evil”), from Old English dwala, dwola (“error, heresy; doubt; madman, deceiver, heretic”) and Old Norse dvala (“sleep, stupor”).

Why this word is great

DWALE — [Noun, Verb] A soporific plant such as belladonna, the potion brewed from it, or the narcotic stupor it induces; also, to mutter incoherently under its influence. From Middle English dwale ("stupor; deception"), blending Old English dwala/dwola ("error, madness") and Old Norse dvala ("sleep, stupor"). Unlike "belladonna" (which names a specific plant) or "lethargy" (which suggests mere sluggishness), dwale evokes the sinister alchemy of herbs and oblivion. It is the witch’s brew simmering in a blackened cauldron, the way shadows thicken at the edges of a drugged man’s vision, or the low, nonsensical babble of a tongue loosened by poison—the body’s slow surrender to a darkness both literal and metaphysical.

noun

  1. Belladonna or a similar soporific plant.“Beneath and around the clumps of ragged moss-grown elder and hoary stunted whitethorn (...) rise thickets of tall nettles and rank hemlock, concealing the deadly but alluring dwale —”
  2. A sleeping-potion, especially one made from belladonna.“The authors studied the ingredients and method of administration to try to ascertain whether dwale was effective, and they found it certainly could have worked.”
  3. A torpor.“He's in a dwale, a dead sleep; a common expression in the North of England.”
  4. A bugbear.“Consume us; shake the darkness like a tree, And fill the night with mischiefs, — blights and dwales, Weevils, and rots, and cankers!”

verb

  1. To mutter deliriously.