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Origin and history of toadstool

toadstool(n.)

late 14c., tode-stole, a common name for umbrella-shaped fungi; it is apparently a fanciful name from Middle English tadde "toad" (see toad) + stole "stool, seat" (see stool). Toads themselves were regarded as highly poisonous, and since c. 1800 this word is "popularly restricted to poisonous or inedible fungi, as distinct from edible mushrooms" [OED, 1989]. Compare toad-cheese, a poisonous fungi. In Promptorium parvulorum (mid-15c.) Middle English toodys hatte glossed Latin boletus. Toad's meat (1886) was, a rustic term for "toadstool."

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to toadstool

stool(n.)

Middle English stōl, from Old English stol "seat for one person," from Proto-Germanic *stōla- (source also of Old Frisian stol, Old Norse stoll, Old High German stuol, German Stuhl "seat," Gothic stols "high seat, throne"), from PIE *sta-lo-, locative of root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm" (source also of Lithuanian pa-stolas "stand," Old Church Slavonic stolu "stool").

The English word was originally used of thrones (as in cynestol "royal seat, throne") and in early Middle English still of episcopal seats and sees and judicial benches. Its decline in sense began with adoption of chair (n.) from French. After 14c. this relegated stool to small seats without arms or backs (attested also from late Old English), sometimes a piece of wood mounted on three legs, or to "privy" (early 15c.) and thence to "bowel movement" (1530s).

toad(n.)

"tail-less amphibian," in old texts usually but not always distinguished from a frog (which lives part of its life in water), c. 1300, tode, from a shortening of late Old English tadige, tadie, a word of unknown origin and according to OED (1989) with no known cognates outside English (Danish tudse, Swedish tåssa are considered unrelated).

The toad is perfectly harmless, a useful bug-eater in gardens, but long was regarded as loathsome and malevolent, sometimes a symbol of the Devil himself, and is mentioned in Middle English texts along with dragons, etc., as among the horrors awaiting the damned in Hell, and even souls in Purgatory were said to be gnawed by toads. The word was applied to loathsome persons from 1560s. Also compare toady, toadstone, toadstool.

Promptorium parvulorum (mid-15c.) has todelinge glossing Latin bufonulus. Toad-strangler "heavy rain" is from 1919, U.S. Southern dialectal. The culinary toad in the hole is attested from 1787.

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    mushroom
    a word applied at first to almost any of the larger fungi but later to the agaricoid fungi and especially the edible varieties, mid-15c., muscheron, musseroun (attested 1327 as a surname, John Mussheron), from Anglo-French musherun, Old French meisseron (11c., Modern French mouss
    paddock
    Paddock-stool was an old name for a toadstool (mid-15c.)....
    stole
    Middle English stol, from Old English stole "long garment, robe; scarf-like garment worn around the neck or over the shoulder by clergymen," from Latin stola "robe, vestment" (also source of Old French estole, Modern French étole, Spanish estola, Italian stola), from Greek stolē
    meat
    Middle English mēte, from Old English mete "food, nourishment, sustenance" (paired with drink), "item of food; animal food, fodder," also "a meal, repast," from Proto-Germanic *mati (source also of Old Frisian mete, Old Saxon meti, Old Norse matr, Old High German maz, Gothic mats
    April
    fourth month, c. 1300, aueril, from Old French avril (11c.), from Latin (mensis) Aprilis, second month of the ancient Roman calendar, from a stem of uncertain origin and meaning, with month-name suffix -ilis as in Quintilis, Sextilis (the old names of July and August). Perhaps ba
    alcohol
    1540s (early 15c. as alcofol), "fine powder produced by sublimation," from Medieval Latin alcohol "powdered ore of antimony," from Arabic al-kuhul "kohl," the fine metallic powder used to darken the eyelids, from kahala "to stain, paint." The al- is the Arabic definite article, "
    kind
    "class, sort, variety," from Old English gecynd "kind, nature, race," related to cynn "family" (see kin), from Proto-Germanic *kundjaz "family, race," from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups. Ælfric's rend
    discretion
    c. 1300, dyscrecyounne, "ability to perceive and understand;" mid-14c., "moral discernment, ability to distinguish right from wrong;" c. 1400, "prudence, sagacity regarding one's conduct," from Old French discrecion and directly from Medieval Latin discretionem (nominative discre
    bozo
    1920, "muscular low-I.Q. male," originally appearing in boxing slang (compare bimbo). Perhaps from Spanish bozal, used in the slave trade and also to mean "one who speaks Spanish poorly." It was also a proper name of Eastern European origin. By 1913 a vaudeville actor named Bob A
    chauvinism
    1840, "exaggerated, blind nationalism; patriotism degenerated into a vice," from French chauvinisme (1839), from the character Nicholas Chauvin, soldier of Napoleon's Grand Armee, who idolized Napoleon and the Empire long after it was history, in the Cogniards' popular 1831 vaude

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