Toxin vs toxic

[Woody Woods]

The term "toxicant" shows up in the toxicology literature when referring to
toxic substances of anthropogenic origin. Makes sense-- "toxin" is such a nice
word, and "toxicant" sounds just plain nefarious!

Woody

Michael Gochfeld wrote:
> 
> In the message below, Chris has explored the relationship between
> "toxin" and "toxic".  It would be reasonable to assume that the
> adjective "toxic" would have the same meaning as the noun "toxin", but
> that is not the case (and probably has never been the case).
> 
> 
-- 
*********************************************************
William A. Woods Jr.
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd                      Lab: 617-287-6642
Boston, MA 02125                        Fax: 617-287-6650
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