malpitte, noun

Forms:
Also malpita.
Plurals:
unchanged.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African EnglishShow more Afrikaans, mal mad + pit pip + plural suffix -e, -te. Although a plural form in Afrikaans, malpitte is often interpreted as a singular noun in South African English.
The highly poisonous seed of the thorn-apple Datura stramonium of the Solanaceae, containing the narcotic alkaloid known as hyoscyamine; occasionally, the thorn-apple plant itself (also called stinkblaar). Also attributive.
1948 [see stinkblaar].
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 51Stinkblaar..a weed which must be treated with respect...Generations of South African school boys have known these seeds as malpitte because of the queer behaviour and delirium they produce.
1973 E. Prov. Herald 27 Apr. 1A nightmare four-day hallucinatory drug trip induced by a common garden weed, known as ‘malpitte’ (mad pips), which grows wild in gardens and open ground.
1973 Radio South Africa 29 May (Woman’s World)There is the Jimson weed...Very often it’s called malpitte by children because the pips when eaten cause hallucination.
1973 E. Prov. Herald 7 Nov. 7The tin contained a mixture of dagga, fine tobacco and ‘malpitte’, an intoxicating seed.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 3 Jan. 6The authors..investigated 10 cases of malpitte (madseed) madness treated at the Johannesburg General Hospital and Crisis Clinic, Johannesburg. The patients were schoolchildren aged between 14 and 18.
1978 Darling 22 Nov. 84They’re chewing morning-glory seeds, and malpita, which was originally imported from South America and planted on our plains to prevent soil erosion.
1978 Darling 109Malpita can derange you for ever...You see people that aren’t really there, you do things without knowing what you’re doing.
1987 Party invitation, GrahamstownBring your own Obbies, Tas, or SAB, Pure Ethanol, Malpitte or Bags of Weed.
The highly poisonous seed of the thorn-apple Datura stramonium of the Solanaceae, containing the narcotic alkaloid known as hyoscyamine; occasionally, the thorn-apple plant itself (also called stinkblaar). Also attributive.
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19491987