The bacterium (Clostridium botulinum) that produces botulinum toxin; or the toxin itself produced by this bacterium.
From Latin botulus (sausage) plus the Latinized suffix '-inum' (neuter), named for its discovery in spoiled sausages during a 1793 outbreak in Germany.
The 1793 Wilnsdorf sausage outbreak killed multiple people and led to one of the first scientific investigations of food poisoning—it's how this toxin got identified and named, making botulism a crucial discovery in food safety science.
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