Careful Words

pernicious (adj.)

Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book vi. Line 330.

Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,

Unfriendly to society's chief joys:

Thy worst effect is banishing for hours

The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 251.