opium

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈəʊ.pi.əm/ (UK); /ˈoʊ.pi.əm/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English opium, opion,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin opium,^{[2][4][5][6][7]} from Ancient Greek ὄπιον (ópion, “poppy juice”),^{[2][4][5][6][7]} a diminutive of opós “vegetable juice, sap”.^{[2][4][5][6][7]} The Greek word goes back to a PIE root meaning “juice, resin”, which also gave Lithuanian sakai “resin”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The thickened juice of the opium poppy, used as an analgesic and to induce sleep (1392 in Barnhart; 1398 in the OED).^[4][8][3]

Semantic evolution

Opium has been especially used in medicine since the 17th century for relieving pain and producing sleep.^[5] Figuratively, any stupefying agent has been called opium since 1608,^[8] often with reference to religion in the phrase the opium of the people, a translation of Karl Marx's Opium des Volks (1843–44).^[8][5][9] The opium-eater, a habitual user, is recorded by 1821,^[5] and the name of the British Opium War against China (1839–42) from 1841.^[5]

Timeline

• 1392 – the drug.^[4]
• 1608 – figuratively, any stupefying agent.^[8]
• 1821 – opium-eater.^[5]
• 1841 – Opium War.^[5]
• 1844 – Marx's “opium of the people”.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A bitter, yellowish-brown, strongly addictive narcotic drug made from the dried juice of the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy, containing alkaloids such as morphine and codeine.
2. Something that numbs or stupefies, or that soothes the mind into inaction.

Word family

• opiumism
• opium poppy
• Opium War

Related words

• opiate
• opioid
• laudanum
• morphine

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press