# Venomous vs. poisonous: A history?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venomous-vs-poisonous-a-history/721055>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 28, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venomous-vs-poisonous-a-history/721055 "2015-05-28T17:34:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venomous-vs-poisonous-a-history/721055/4 "2015-05-28T17:56:07Z")

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When I worked in a venom lab in the 1970s, we used the words interchangably in conversation, but we did refer to our company as a venom lab, not a poison lab. I never ran into nitpickery on this topic until I started reading SDMB, and it makes me roll my eyes every time I see it.

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