ergot

American  

[ur-guht, -got] / ˈɜr gət, -gɒt /

noun

1. Plant Pathology.

   1. a disease of rye and other cereal grasses, caused by a fungus of the genus Claviceps, especially C. purpurea, which replaces the affected grain with a long, hard, blackish sclerotial body.

   2. the sclerotial body itself.

2. Pharmacology. the dried sclerotium of C. purpurea, developed on rye plants: used in the production of ergotamine and ergotoxine.

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ergot British  

/ ˈɜːɡət, -ɡɒt /

noun

1. a disease of cereals and other grasses caused by ascomycete fungi of the genus Claviceps, esp C. purpurea, in which the seeds or grain of the plants are replaced by the spore-containing bodies (sclerotia) of the fungus

2. any fungus causing this disease

3. the dried sclerotia of C. purpurea, used as the source of certain alkaloids used to treat haemorrhage, facilitate uterine contraction in childbirth, etc

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ergot Scientific  

/ ûr′gət /

1. A fungus (Claviceps purpurea) that infects rye as well as other cereal grasses fed to livestock. Ergot forms sclerotia (masses of hyphae) that replace individual seeds in the spike of the infected plant and contain a complex mixture of alkaloids, several of which are medicinally important. Ergot is the basic source of ergotamine and lysergic acid. Ingestion of infected rye produces convulsions, hallucinations, and severe vasoconstriction that can lead to gangrene. Ergot poisoning may have been responsible for outbreaks of mass hysteria and reports of demonic visions in medieval Europe.

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Etymology

Origin of ergot

1675–85; < French: literally, a rooster's spur; Old French argos, argoz, argot spur(s)

Example Sentences

Instead, we’re the village idiots consuming stale mead and suffering from ergot poisoning.

From Salon • Sep. 12, 2025

As a historian of Salem witchcraft, I have a pet peeve: people who believe the myth that the witchcraft crisis of 1692 was somehow “caused” by ergot poisoning.

From Time • Sep. 26, 2017

The first such drugs, called ergotamines, were powerful vasoconstrictors derived from the ergot fungus, which grows on rye and other grains and led to mass poisonings in the Middle Ages.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 7, 2016

But Brueggeman notes that part of the attraction with growing corn is that wheat is becoming more of a specialty crop, with growers facing discounts for any traces of ergot or vomitoxin, for example.

From Washington Times • Aug. 16, 2015

Moreover, injections of sodium urate and ergot caused necroses in the muscularis and elastica of the aorta, pulmonary artery, vena cavas inferior and heart muscle, but there was no calcification.

From Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension: with Chapters on Blood Pressure, 3rd Edition. by Warfield, Louis Marshall