Etymologically
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opioid

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:49. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈəʊpiɔɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English opium + -oid.[2][3][4][5][6] Merriam-Webster and Webster's Third take it instead from opiate with the same suffix.[7][8] Opium is from Latin opium, from Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion, “poppy juice, opium”), a diminutive of ὀπός (opós, “vegetable juice”).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A synthetic narcotic drug derived from morphine or with effects like it: 1955, in Gross and Schiffrin's Clinical Analgetics.[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1957, as does Merriam-Webster for the sense "synthetic drug",[3][7] and Dictionary.com to 1955–60.[6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that at first the word was not clearly distinguished from opiate, but that it now generally means a substance that acts like an opiate without occurring naturally in opium.[3] The OED records the opposite drift: first a synthetic drug like morphine, later also any opiate.[2] The 1989 OED added a pharmacological sense (1967) for any compound whose effects on the nervous system, especially the relief of pain, resemble those of opiates,[9] and Merriam-Webster applies the noun to the body's own endorphins and enkephalins, which bind to opiate receptors.[7][10] The adjective is recorded from 1959.[2]

Timeline

  • 1955 – noun, a synthetic narcotic like morphine.[2][6]
  • 1959 – adjective, of or like an opioid.[2]
  • 1967 – any compound with opiate-like effects, including those produced in the body.[9][10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of a group of drugs or other substances that act like morphine, especially in relieving pain, whether natural, synthetic or partly synthetic.[11][2][12]
  2. A synthetic narcotic with effects like those of an opiate but not derived from opium.[7][10]
  3. Any of the peptides made in the body, such as an endorphin, that bind to opiate receptors.[7][10]

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to or like an opioid: an opioid painkiller.[11][2][7]
  2. Caused by an opioid.[7][10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press