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Toxic is derived from medieval Latin “toxicus”, meaning poisoned, which itself is derived from Latin “toxicum”, meaning poison. This is where things get interesting since “toxicum” is derived from ancient Greek “τοξικόν φάρμακον”/“toxikon pharmakon” meaning bow poison. In Greek “τοξικόν”/“toxikon”, the origin of “toxicum”, is actually the adjective used for something pertaining to a bow with the word for poison being “φάρμακον”/“pharmakon”. This is a case of an adjective being used as a substitute for a noun, similarly to how “mobile phone” was shortened to just “mobile” in modern English.

There are many attestations of poisoned arrow usage in the ancient world. There's evidence of their use all over the world, in the Mediterranean, North Africa, central Asia, China, North and South America and Oceania. Poisoned arrows were used for both hunting and warfare.

The attentive reader might have noticed the similarity of the English transliteration of “φάρμακον”, “pharmakon”, with English words such as “pharmaceutical”. Although “φάρμακον” initially meant poison, over time it acquired the meaning of medicine, giving rise to words such as “pharmaceutical” or “pharmacology”.