The fact that we’re having this discussion at all kind of proves that either English is losing the distinction, or it was never as clear a distinction as people sometimes make it out to be. Either way I’m fine with it because it doesn’t seem like a very useful distinction to make in everyday language, and you can sidestep it entirely by using a word like toxic instead.
In german there is only one word for it, which is a gift for german speakers.
I’d take poisonous/venomous over German grammar.
Literally Gift or giftig.
Same in Spanish. Veneno for both posion/venom.
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The fact that we’re having this discussion at all kind of proves that either English is losing the distinction, or it was never as clear a distinction as people sometimes make it out to be. Either way I’m fine with it because it doesn’t seem like a very useful distinction to make in everyday language, and you can sidestep it entirely by using a word like toxic instead.
We say poison tipped arrows, not venom tipped arrows, so there’s at least one example of the words being interchangeable.
Nah, if I remember right, those arrows use the poison from a tree frog’s skin, not something like a snake’s venom. So still poison!
Same in Norway with “gift”. Also, the same word is used for “married”.