Locusta, a professional poisoner, who worked in the service of Agrippina and her son Nero, was an expert in poisons. 

A-In Latin, the word venenum was a polysemic word that meant drug in general, and could be bonum (harmless), when applied with the intention of healing, or malum (harmful), when applied with the intent to harm.

1.-Explain the evolution into English of venenum and write words derived from this stem, separating the prefixes and suffixes that form them. Does it preserve the same meaning as in Latin?

2.-A synonym for venenum in Latin was virus. Explain why virus is a Latinism. Look up in the dictionary the meaning of virulent and virulence and choose the entry that is related to our use of this word. Viruses, virologist and viral are related to the meaning of viruses? Justify your answer. 

3.-Toxicum was another synonym of venenum, used by the Romans and borrowed from the Greeks. In English, we have a descendant, toxic. Find more related terms.

4.-Potionem and medicamen were also synonyms for venenum. Find derivatives of both words and write down their meaning. 

5.-The Greeks used the term pharmakon (φάρμακον), a polysemic word that meant remedy, healing drug, enchanting drink, hallucinogen, and poison. It encompasses a remedy for life and, at the same time, a poison for death. Work on the lexical family of this stem, writing down the meaning of the words.

B.-The fact of being poisoned was common in ancient times, so, preventively, to alleviate the effects of possible ingestion, they used to take certain doses of poisons that served as antidotes.

1.-Antídoto deriva del griego ἀντίδοτος («algo dado contra algo»), compuesto con el prefijo ἀντί (anti- = contra, opuesto), un prefijo muy abundante en nuestra lengua. Escribe palabras que contengan este prefijo y fíjate si todavía mantiene el significado. 

2.-Antidote derives from the Greek ἀντίδοτος («something given against something»), composed with the prefix ἀντί (anti-= against), a very abundant prefix in our language. Write words that contain this prefix and see if it still keeps the original meaning.

3.-Find out who the Praegustator was. Does this figure exist today?

4.-Comment this expression attributed to Paracelsus and find out who this character was: All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.