castor bean
1
7.4
- noun
- /ˈkæstər bin/
:
frijol de ricino
- Red stain is derived from the seed of a bush similar to our castor bean.
- castor bean plant
- derived from castor beans
Examples
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Handle castor beans carefully, as they can be harmful if ingested.
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She spreads a mixture of castor bean oil and red ocher over a goat skin.
Academic text (2002) -
I put some ground-up castor beans in them so I'd look sick enough to get in here.
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That gigantic greenish-brown bush back there... what was it, a castor bean?
Fiction book (2001) -
After Sokate scrapes the hide, she spreads a reddish, oily paste of ground castor beans and pieces of red ocher over it.
Academic text (2002) -
Ricin is a toxic substance that comes from the seeds of the castor bean plant.
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The castor bean seed is known for its use in producing castor oil, but it is also very dangerous.
How Poisonous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a straightforward, compositional combination: 'castor' (a plant that produces oil) + 'bean' (a seed), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it denotes the seed of the castor plant. The specific fact that the seed is toxic is additional encyclopedic knowledge, but the basic referent is directly derivable and cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
Castor bean got its name from old medicine. One popular story says the word castor was connected to the animal 'beaver' because parts of beavers were used in medicine and the plant's oil was used in a similar way, and the seeds look like small beans, so people called them castor beans. So, today castor bean means 'the toxic seed used to make castor oil'.