ketamine

Etymology

It is formed from English keto- + amine, with the combining form shortened before a vowel.^[2][3][4][5] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Concise Oxford describe it instead as a blend of ketone and amine.^[6][7] Ketone is from German Keton, a modification of acetone introduced by the chemist Leopold Gmelin in 1848,^[8][3] and amine is formed from the first letters of ammonia and the chemical suffix -ine.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An anaesthetic and analgesic compound: 1966, in the list of Approved Names of the British Pharmacopoeia Commission.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Etymonline also date the word to 1966,^[5][3] and Dictionary.com to 1965–70.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word was coined as the approved name of a synthetic drug, and the OED still defines it chemically, as a crystalline substance that relieves pain and produces anaesthesia.^[8] The later dictionaries add its illicit use: the Shorter Oxford and Collins describe it as taken illegally as a hallucinogen,^[4][10] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that it is usually inhaled as a powder for the dreamlike state it causes, while in medicine it is injected into a vein or muscle.^[5] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate compares the street name Special K,^[11] and Wiktionary records the derivative K-hole.^[1]

Timeline

• 1966 – the approved name of a synthetic anaesthetic and analgesic drug.^[8][5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A synthetic anaesthetic and analgesic drug, given by injection into a vein or muscle in medicine.^{[5][8][10][4]}
2. The same drug taken illegally, usually as an inhaled powder, as a hallucinogen producing a dreamlike, detached state: Police found ketamine and other drugs in the car.^[5][10][4]

Related words

• ketone
• amine
• acetone
• ammonia

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster