means A plant from the Solanaceae family — a group that includes the poisonous belladonna and toxic black nightshade, as well as edible relatives like potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers.

from From Old English 'nihtscada,' literally 'night' plus 'shade' — a name reaching back through Germanic cousins (compare Old Saxon 'nahtscado'). The 'shade' likely points to the plant's love of shadowy places, or perhaps to its dark, sleep-bringing, sometimes deadly powers — fittingly sinister for a plant linked with poison and the night.