Etymologically
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laudanum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɫau̯.da.nũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈlaːu̯.da.num][1]

Forms

laudanum n (genitive laudanī); second declension[1]

Etymology

As the name of a medicine it was coined by Paracelsus, who gave a pretended recipe for it with leaf gold and unpierced pearls among the ingredients.[2][3] The OED considers it doubtful whether he applied the medieval Latin spelling laudanum of ladanum (the gum resin) fancifully, took the name from laudāre “to praise”, or formed it arbitrarily.[2] Etymonline gives both explanations.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before Paracelsus, laudanum was a spelling of ladanum, the gum resin, which the TLL finds in late medical texts; it suggests that the spelling came from a supposed derivation from laudāre.[4]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Latin the form is used for the resin in a recipe cited by Du Cange,[5] and a Polish source uses it for the shrub that yields the resin.[6]

It was early suspected that the real agent of the cures Paracelsus claimed was opium, and the name was therefore applied to opiate preparations sold as his remedy;[2][3] it soon came to mean any alcoholic tincture of opium.[3]

Timeline

  • 1540s – Paracelsus uses laudanum as the name of his medicine.[3]
  • c. 1602 – The English word laudanum is recorded for a compound that soothes pain.[2]
  • 1616 – English laudanum is also used for the gum resin ladanum.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) The gum resin ladanum, or the shrub that yields it.[5][6][7]
  2. (New Latin) laudanum, a medicine of Paracelsus, later an opiate preparation.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  6. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  7. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences