A chemical compound or alkaloid, or a variant spelling of cothurnus (a high boot worn in ancient Greek and Roman drama).
From Greek 'kothornus' or Latin 'cothurnus' referring to the tragic boot. The chemical term may derive from the same root or be independently formed.
The cotrine boot became so associated with tragic theater that 'cothurnus' is used symbolically to mean tragedy itself—it's like how we say 'the silver screen' to mean cinema, using an object to represent the whole art form.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.