[icyfox]

At the risk of being overly pedantic, topologists would typically classify this as venom.

Venom is inert if digested; it's only a problem if it gets in your blood stream. So arrows that were laced with venom and thereby contaminated meat were actually perfectly safe to eat.

Poison is different. If ingested, inhaled, or absorbed it will kill you.

[skrebbel]

We Dutch solve this problem by having a single word for "poison", "venom and "toxin"¹. Everybody still knows what you mean and nobody gets to be pedantic.

¹ and "badly compressed looping animation"

[pjmlp]

Same in Portuguese, veneno.

Although there are plenty of other opportunities for pedantry, especially when we take regionalisms, and other Portuguese speaking countries into account.

[XCSme]

Is the word "stamppot" ?

[OptionOfT]

Vergif.

I don't know how you get from 'ver' to badly compressed.

(And I'm a native Flemish speaker, but living in the USA for 8+ years, so I barely, if ever speak it).

[samlinnfer]

Same in Chinese (毒). But it is a better solution just not to give pedants the time of the day.

[gambiting]

Same in Polish. You'd just call both of these "trucizna".

[VanshPatel99]

TIL. I always thought that "If it bite you -> you die = venom" and "If you eat, bite, touch -> you die = poison". But your differentiation makes more sense

[zahlman]

That explains the words "venomous" and "poisonous" used of creatures.

It's different for the actual substances. Although it relates: a venomous creature that bites you will release its venom into your bloodstream.

[hearsathought]

If a venomous snake bites you, you die. If you bite a venomous snake, you live. If a poisonous snake bites you, you will. If you bite a poisonous snake, you die.

Or Hamlet's mother died by drinking poisoned wine. Hamlet died by being stabbed with an envenomed sword.

[throwaway5465]

Not overly pedantic at all as it highlights that by using venom the hunters were able to eat what they shot.

[hyrix]

These chemicals are derived from plants where even pedants would classify them as poisons.

The genus name Boophone is from the Greek bous = ox, and phontes= killer of, a clear warning that eating the plant can be fatal to livestock.

[cluckindan]

Huh, so telephone is killer of distance and Persephone is killer of… Persians? Grain? Vegetation?

[icyfox]

Fair point about the source, but the classification usually follows the mode of delivery, not the organism of origin.

Many plant-derived compounds function as venoms once introduced into the bloodstream (arrow coatings, darts, etc.), even if they’re also toxic when ingested. Curare is one example of a plant-based compound - lethal in blood, but largely harmless if eaten.

So while Boophone is absolutely a poison in the ecological sense, using it on arrows still fits the venom/toxin distinction better than a purely ingested poison. Otherwise why would people hunt with this if they got sick the second they ate the meat?

[Gud]

Not pedantic, two different.

Thanks for clarifying.

[Retric]

In practice the difference is mostly semantics.

Venom is still almost always poisonous when eaten and poison is harmful when injected. 2-3% as dangerous when eaten vs injected only helps so much.

[readthenotes1]

"mostly semantics"

Semantics: 1 (linguistics) the study of meanings

I am not sure what could be more important.

But perhaps you "word choice"?

[OptionOfT]

But eating a rattlesnake and dying is a bad way of finding out that you have a stomach ulcer.

[jeltz]

I am not a native speaker but I believe you are wrong. It is called poison dart for example. So injected toxins can be both called poisons and venoms.

[mrleinad]

In Spanish it's commonly "dardo venenoso" (venomous dart), no "dardo ponzoñoso" (poisonous dart). So it's probably incorrectly used in English.