destroying angel

English

Etymology

The mushrooms perhaps from their white angel-like appearance. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

destroying angel (plural destroying angels)

  1. Any of a group of four deadly toxic mushrooms in the Amanita genus: Amanita bisporigera, Amanita ocreata, Amanita verna, and Amanita virosa.
    Synonyms: angel of death, death angel
    • 2010 November 13, Richard Eshelman, Sophie Haydock, “Experience: I nearly died after eating wild mushrooms”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      The doctors ran some tests and confirmed I'd eaten the destroying angel. I was the third person that year to be admitted after eating one. The two before me hadn't survived.
    • 2015 November 6, Helen Macdonald, “Sex, Death and Mushrooms”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN:
      You might survive if you eat a destroying angel or death cap, but you’ll probably need a liver transplant.
  2. (biblical) In the Hebrew Bible, an entity sent out by God on several occasions to punish opponents.

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