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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread upas tree #117104 12/04/2003 6:49 PM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 wwh Carpal Tunnel wwh Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 "'When you first came upon me, sir, in the Lodge, this day, more as if a Upas tree had been made a capture of than a private defendant, such mingled streams of feelings broke loose again within me, that everything was for the first few minutes swept away before them, and I was going round and round in a vortex. I got out of it. I struggled, and got out of it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the upas-tree is "a fabulous tree alleged to have existed in Java . . .with properties so poisonous as to destroy all animal and vegetable life to a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles around it." Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: upas tree #117105 12/05/2003 5:37 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 3,065 Jakarta Bingley Carpal Tunnel Bingley Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 3,065 Jakarta The upas tree is a real tree, but not as poisonous as the legend would have us believe. The Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia entry for upas says: upas n. 1. vegetable poison 2. a poisonous tree:Antiaris Toxicaria Apparently its sap was (and for all I know may still be) used for poison darts. See http://bpi.da.gov.ph/websitemedicinal/all/i/ipo.htm Bingley Bingley Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

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