סַם, cmp. Arab. samma, to penetrate) drug (healing or deleterious); medicine; poison; paint. Sabb. XII, 4 כתב בדיו בסם וכ׳ if one wrote (on the Sabbath) with ink, with a paint (orpiment or sandaracha) &c. Lam. R. to II, 11, v. דִּמְעָה. Ḥull. III, 5 אבלה סם המות if the animal is known to have swallowed a deadly poison; ib. 58ᵇ סם המות דבהמה what is deadly to animals, דאדם what is deadly to man. B. Kam. 85ᵃ כמה … בין סייף לסם how much a person condemned by the government to have his hand cut off would pay for the difference (in pain) between the plain operation with the sword and that performed under the influence of a drug (mandrake, v. Plin. H. N. XXV, 150). Yoma 72ᵇ (play on שָׂם, Deut. IV, 44) זכה … סם חיים וכ׳ if he applies his learning rightly, it becomes to him a medicine of life, if not, a deadly poison. Kidd. 30ᵇ (play on ושמתם, Deut. XI, 18) סם תם an unfailing remedy; Sifré Deut. 45; a. fr.—Pl. סַמִּים. Gen. R. s. 10 (fr. Ben Sira) אלוה העלה ס׳ וכ׳ God made drugs come forth out of the earth, with them the physician heals …, and out of them the druggist produces poisonous drugs. Ker. 6ᵇ; a. e.