poysoun

• poison, poisoun, poyson, poysun
• poisun, puisun, puissun (Early Middle English); poysone, poysoune, poysown (Late Middle English)
• pusoun, pusesoun, puyson, puysoun (especially Northern); pusone (Catholicon Anglicum); poyssone, pwsoune (Early Scots)

Borrowed from Old French poison (“medicinal or poisonous drink”), from Latin pōtiōnis, accusative of pōtiō; doublet of pocioun. First attested in c. 1225.

• IPA^(key): /pui̯ˈzuːn/, /ˈpuizun/, /ˈpuizən/
• IPA^(key): /pyːˈzuːn/, /ˈpyːzun/, /piu̯ˈzuːn/, /ˈpiu̯zun/ (especially Northern)

poysoun (plural poysouns)

1. A poison; a poisonous substance (especially as a drink)
2. (figuratively) A destructive idea or thought.
3. (rare) A medicinal drink; an elixir.

• English: poison
• Middle Scots: poysoun, pusoun
  • Scots: pushion

• “poisoun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “poison, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎^[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 255, page 814.