/err"geuht, -got/ , n.
1. Plant Pathol.
a. a disease of rye and other cereal grasses, caused by a fungus of the genus Claviceps, esp. C. purpurea, which replaces the affected grain with a long, hard, blackish sclerotial body.
b. the sclerotial body itself.
2. Pharm. the dried sclerotium of C. purpurea, developed on rye plants: used in the production of ergotamine and ergotoxine.
[ 1675-85; argos, argoz, argot spur(s) ]