heroin

[her-oh-in]

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noun Pharmacology.

a white, crystalline, narcotic powder, C21H23NO5, derived from morphine, formerly used as an analgesic and sedative: manufacture and importation of heroin are now controlled by federal law in the U.S. because of the danger of addiction.

Origin of heroin

1895–1900; formerly trademark; < German Heroin < Greek hērō-, stem of hḗrōs hero + German -in -in²; allegedly so called from the feelings of power and euphoria which it stimulates

Also called diacetylmorphine, diamorphine.

Can be confusedheroin heroine

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for heroin

Contemporary Examples of heroin

The correspondent does a stand-up next to a burning pile of heroin and gets a taste of its effect.
BBC Reporter Gets High On The Job
Jack Holmes, The Daily Beast Video
December 23, 2014
Like many rock stars of the time, Ramone lived there on-and-off for a time; he even detoxed from heroin there once.
‘All Good Cretins Go to Heaven’: Dee Dee Ramone’s Twisted Punk Paintings
Melissa Leon
December 15, 2014
It remains a Schedule I narcotic to this day, considered as dangerous and addictive by the federal government as heroin and MDMA.
Pot-Smoking Grannies, Jimmy Fallon Covers U2, and More Viral Videos
The Daily Beast Video
November 23, 2014
The journey ends with Cooke discovering Joplin in her hotel room after she has overdosed on heroin.
Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues
William O’Connor
November 8, 2014
That star would all too famously implode with her tragic death from a heroin overdose at a mere 27 years of age.
Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues
William O’Connor
November 8, 2014

Historical Examples of heroin

At this writing the most harmful form of opiate with which we have to deal is heroin.
Habits that Handicap
Charles B. Towns
Heroin in doses of from 1/24th to 1/12th grain is often of service.
Manual of Surgery
Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
Heroin hydrochloride has been tried in their place, but this seems to have more power over slight than over severe cases.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3
Various
Another is a society woman who was given a dose of heroin and that one dose proved sufficient for her undoing.
Heart and Soul
Victor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
At the beginning of my Administration there were over a half million heroin addicts in the United States.
Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to 2006
Various

British Dictionary definitions for heroin

heroin

noun

a white odourless bitter-tasting crystalline powder related to morphine: a highly addictive narcotic. Formula: C 21 H 23 NO 5Technical names: diamorphine, diacetylmorphine

Word Origin for heroin

C19: coined in German as a trademark, probably from hero, referring to its aggrandizing effect on the personality

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for heroin

1898, from German Heroin, coined 1898 as trademark registered by Friedrich Bayer & Co. for their morphine substitute, traditionally from Greek heros (see hero (n.1)) because of the euphoric feeling the drug provides, but no evidence for this seems to have been found so far.

A new hypnotic, to which the name of "heroin" has been given, has been tried in the medical clinic of Professor Gerhardt in Berlin. ["The Lancet," Dec. 3, 1898]

Medicine definitions for heroin