Etymologically
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laudanum

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈlɔːdənəm/, /ˈlɔːdnəm/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin laudanum,[2][3][4][5][6] a name coined by Paracelsus for a medicine supposed to contain opium.[3][4][6] Its origin is uncertain:[3] it may be from Medieval Latin labdanum or lādanum “a gum resin”,[2][3][6] or from Latin laudāre “to praise”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Various preparations in which opium was the main ingredient (1602–3).[7][5][4] Barnhart dates the word to 1543.[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that Paracelsus's remedy was said to contain gold and crushed pearls but probably owed its effect only to the opium.[4] The word soon came to mean any alcoholic tincture of opium,[4][7] and this is its only sense today.[2][5][6]

Timeline

  • 1540s – New Latin laudanum, coined by Paracelsus.[4][3]
  • 1602–3 – opium preparations.[7][5]
  • 1616 – the gum resin ladanum.[7]
  • 1839–40 – verb, to dose with laudanum.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A tincture of opium, formerly widely used as a medicine.

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press