laudanum
[lawd-n-uh m, lawd-nuh m]
- a tincture of opium.
- Obsolete. any preparation in which opium is the chief ingredient.
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Origin of laudanum
1595–1605; orig. Medieval Latin variant of ladanum; arbitrarily used by Paracelsus to name a remedy based on opium
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
anestheticopiumpainkillerdopesedativeopiatetranquilizerheroinmerchandisejunkfixhypnoticsoporificstuffanalgesicanodynedownerlenitivelaudanumsomnifacientExamples from the Web for laudanum
Historical Examples
But forego, if possible, your pernicious stimulant of laudanum.
The Works of Whittier, Volume V (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
Her spirits are remarkably high—not an uncommon effect of laudanum.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of laudanum.
He must have seen, as I saw, that she wanted the laudanum to poison herself.
The Lock And Key LibraryVarious
The doctor recovered himself when she asked for the laudanum.
The Lock And Key LibraryVarious
laudanum
- a tincture of opium
- (formerly) any medicine of which opium was the main ingredient
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Word Origin
C16: New Latin, name chosen by Paracelsus for a preparation probably containing opium, perhaps based on labdanum
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for laudanum
n.
c.1600, from Modern Latin laudanum (1540s), coined by Paracelsus for a medicine he mixed, supposed to contain gold and crushed pearls and many expensive ingredients, but probably owing its effectiveness to only one of them, opium. Perhaps from Latin laudare "to praise," or from Latin ladanum "a gum resin," from Greek ladanon, a word perhaps of Semitic origin. The word soon came to be used for "any alcoholic tincture of opium." Latin ladanum was used in Middle English of plant resins, but this is not regarded as the source of the 16c. word.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
laudanum
(lôd′n-əm)- A tincture of opium, formerly used as a drug.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.