Toxikos

Toxikos is a Greek adjective meaning poisonous or toxic. In linguistic and scientific contexts, the term is the root from which many English words related to poisons derive. The classical phrase toxikon pharmakon means “poison for arrows” and is often cited as the historical source of the tox- prefix in terms such as toxic, toxin, toxicity, and toxicology. In modern Greek, the cognate adjective is τοξικός (toxikós), used to describe substances or organisms that are harmful or poisonous.

In English, toxikos itself is not used as a technical term; it appears mainly in discussions of etymology or Greek-language texts. The related English vocabulary expresses the concept of poison and poisoning: toxic (adj.), toxin (a poisonous substance produced by living organisms), toxicity (the degree to which something is poisonous), and toxicosis (a disease or condition caused by a toxin). Toxicology is the scientific study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms.

Toxikos therefore functions as a linguistic root rather than a standalone term in most modern scientific usage, but it underpins a large family of terms describing poisons, their effects, and their management.