"Poison" is to "poisoned" as "venom" is to what?

Question

As the title says, poison is to poisoned as venom is to what?

I tried looking up venomed but it means something different.

Is there such a word?

Answer 1

Actually, venomed exists and you can find it here. In literature I have seen the expression venomed arrows, meaning covered with venom, but according to this source it also means poisoned as the past participle of the verb venom.

Answer 2

In biology, the term envenomated (past participle of envenomate) is used for this; Google Books turns up uses like:

• Distribution of Venoms in Envenomated Animals
• Called strike-induced chemosensory searching (SICS), this phenomenon facilitates location of an envenomated rodent which might wander several meters from the snake after the strike.
• The first experience is receiving a dry bite and not being envenomated at all.

That said, I think I'd only use envenomated if the venom is actually delivered by a venomous animal (especially a snake, via bite). If, say, someone were to extract snake venom and use it to poison someone's drink, I think the recipient would be poisoned, not "envenomated". ← Edit: Never mind, please disregard this paragraph. Firstly, snake venom isn't actually poisonous (though it's not a good idea to drink it, because if you happen to have a small cut or sore in your mouth or throat, the venom can get in that way). And secondly, "envenomated" is also used when scientists inject venom as part of an experiment, not just when it's delivered by the venomous animal.

Answer 3

To envenom someone or something is to make it poisonous or to add poison to it. So, if using poison in the figurative sense of fouling, embittering, spoiling, etc. it would be acceptable, as in envenoming a relationship. It would not be suitable when using poison in the sense of murdering someone by poison, or adulterating something lethally.

Answer 4

In the common usage, whereas if a person ingested poison he would be said to have been poisoned, if he received venom the perfect participle would depend on the delivery system: bitten by a snake, spider or biting insect, stung by a bee or scorpion or stinging insect.

Answer 5

The way I see it is that 'venom' and 'poison' are both nouns. They are also both verbs; however, in reality, we don't actually hear 'vemon' used as a verb. Some dictionary entries depict 'venom' only as a noun (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/venom) whereas those that depict 'venom' also as a verb tend to state that its usage as a verb is archaic (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/venom).

What I am getting at is that when we say 'poison is to poisoned' we are talking about 'poison' as a verb. Technically you could say 'as venom is to venomed' (http://verbs.woxikon.com/english-verbforms/venom.php); however, since 'venom' is only ever used as a noun, we are attempting to compare a verb ('poison') and a noun ('venom') in a manner that is incomparable. I cannot think of one native English speaker I know who would have ever heard the word 'venomed'. So whilst it may be grammatically correct, I don't think that you would draw this comparison if your comparison is related to usage as as opposed to grammatical technicalities (Thus, I look to usage to answer your question not to the few authorities that stipulate that 'venom' is an archaic verb.)

Some responses have mentioned the adjectives 'poisonous' and 'venomous'. We could indeed say that, 'poison is to poisonous as venom is to venomous' (noun --> adjective, noun --> adjective) since they are both nouns in the first instance (as opposed to 'poison' as a verb and 'venom' as a noun which is my interpretation of the phrase in question).

Answer 6

OP asked:

poison:poisoned::venom:_______???________

The answer depends on the context, because you've got words there that can be used as nouns, verbs, and adjectives and the verbs can involve actions, statuses, possession, etc.

 

If we're doing Present-Tense Verb:Past-Tense Verb as a grammar exercise, then Irene's answer is 100% right:

Poison:Poisoned::Venom:Venomed

Venomed is the usual past tense of the verb to venom in its various extremely uncommon senses. They're so uncommon that in the wild you will find people actually writing venom-ed and venom'ed to make it clear they know they're verbing a noun, even though it's been an actual (uncommon) verb since the 14th century. In fairness, though, a lot of those uses are using the word in its modern sense as to be covered and infected with an alien symbiote similar to Eddie Brock's, providing additional strength and powers while corrupting one's mind, which the OED hasn't gotten around to adding yet.

 

If we're doing Substance Noun:Past-Tense Verb for Afflicting With, then Mr Fink's answer is 95% right:

Poison:Poisoned::Venom:[Buncha Stuff]

You can say Bob poisoned Mike's food to mean Bob put poison in Mike's food and use something else to describe what happened to Mike himself, but the most common way to express that is Bob poisoned Mike. However, by far, the common thing to do when an animal gets its venom into another animal is to use the verb that describes the specific way that happened: The snake bit the Australian... The spider bit the Australian... The jellyfish stung the Australian... The bee stung the Australian... The other snake blinded the Australian by shooting its venom into his eyes... &c. The other thing that happens a non-0% of the time is to use poisoned, not venomed or envenomed which are used effectively 0% of the time. The sole examples Google knows of only consist of Redditors telling other Redditors that no one ever uses those words that way.

 

If we're doing Substance Noun:Covered-With Adjective, then Choster's answer isn't wrong but it's not the best either.

Poison:Poisoned::Venom:Poisoned

It's more common in English to say a Danish sword or Russian umbrella was envenomed or envenom'd by someone than venomed or empoisoned by them. Outside of metered poetry, many speakers would parse venomed as somehow meaning the item had been bioengineered to produce and secrete its own toxin. People are much more likely to describe such an item as poisoned, though, even if it makes some listeners think for a second or two of the sword or umbrella sweating and vomiting while sick in bed.

 

In the same way, if we're doing Substance Noun:Afflicted-With Adjective, which I think is what OP meant, then so far no one has said it outside of comments like FumbleFinger's and Oldcat's:

Poison:Poisoned::Venom:Poisoned

Mike was poisoned by the hipster IPA Bob substituted for his Bud Lite. Also the arsenic. The Australian, letting his guard down whilst on holiday, was poisoned by the asp's venom. The other possible options aren't even a blip on the radar, regardless of what toxicologists and middle-school biology teachers might pretend is more proper.

 

Finally, if we were doing Substance Noun:Past-Tense Verb for Evolutionarily Developed, then Ruakh's answer would be a correct one but that sense would be off-topic since the first part no longer works. Poison:[N/A]::Venom:Envenomated. Species that have developed venom are sometimes described as envenomated, but no species that has developed poison is described as poisoned to discuss that process. The process is sometimes described as toxification and intoxification, but no one uses toxificated and intoxicated obviously means something else entirely. The analogue empoisoned has only been used for literally and figuratively adding poison to other things. The only verb that kind of matches envenomated here is toxified, but cursory googling only finds scientists using it to describe organisms that are poisoned or cause poison because of various forms of pollution (mercury, aluminum, &c.) that make them ill or toxic for human consumption. That obviously differs from the gradual evolutionary process of starting to develop your own poison as a form of protection or aid to predation.

Answer 7

Venomous - For example, a venomous snake.