dulcamara

Borrowed from Latin dūlcamāra.

dulcamara (uncountable)

1. (medicine, archaic) The dried young branches of the woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), formerly used as a diuretic, diaphoretic, sedative, and narcotic.

From Latin dulcamāra. Compare Italian dolce (“sweet”), amaro (“bitter”).

dulcamara f (plural dulcamare)

1. woody nightshade

dulcamara m (invariable)

1. quack (charlatan doctor)

• dūlcamāra:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [duːɫ.kaˈmaː.ra]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [dul.kaˈmaː.ra]
• dūlcamārā:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [duːɫ.kaˈmaː.raː]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [dul.kaˈmaː.ra]

From dūlcamārus: as a noun, a substantivisation of its feminine forms; as an adjective, regularly declined forms.

dūlcamāra f (genitive dūlcamārae); first declension

1. (New Latin) Solanum dulcamara, bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, woody nightshade
   • 1784, Johann Gottfried Otto, Dissertatio de usu medico dulcamarae, main title:

First-declension noun.

• Catalan: dulcamara, dolçamara (partial calque)
• English: dulcamara
• Italian: dulcamara
• Spanish: dulcamara

dūlcamāra

1. inflection of dūlcamārus:
   1. nominative/vocative singular feminine
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural neuter

dūlcamārā

1. ablative singular feminine of dūlcamārus

From Latin dulcamāra.

• Hyphenation: dul‧ca‧ma‧ra

dulcamara f (plural dulcamaras)

1. bittersweet; woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara, a vine native to Eurasia)

   Synonyms: doce-amarga, uva-de-cão, erva-de-cão, vide-da-índia, vide-da-judeia, vinha-da-judeia

• “dulcamara”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

From Latin dulcamāra.

• IPA^(key): /dulkaˈmaɾa/ [d̪ul.kaˈma.ɾa]
• Rhymes: -aɾa
• Syllabification: dul‧ca‧ma‧ra

dulcamara f (plural dulcamaras)

1. a vine in the nightshade family, bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara)

• “dulcamara”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025