ptomaine came up as a subject here last fall.. i stumbled across the word, -and while i too am shy of 55, i knew the word, and vaguely knew the meaning.. but when i looked it up, i had such delight in learning were it came from!

we can continue here, but this thread will serve as a refresher.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=81499