laudanum

[lawd-n-uh m, lawd-nuh m]

See more synonyms for laudanum on Thesaurus.com

noun

a tincture of opium.
Obsolete. any preparation in which opium is the chief ingredient.

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 for laudanum

anesthetic, opium, painkiller, dope, sedative, opiate, tranquilizer, heroin, merchandise, junk, fix, hypnotic, soporific, stuff, analgesic, anodyne, downer, lenitive, laudanum, somnifacient

Examples from the Web for laudanum

Historical Examples of laudanum

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, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of laudanum.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845
Various
He must have seen, as I saw, that she wanted the laudanum to poison herself.
The Lock And Key Library
Various
The doctor recovered himself when she asked for the laudanum.
The Lock And Key Library
Various

British Dictionary definitions for laudanum

laudanum

noun

a tincture of opium
(formerly) any medicine of which opium was the main ingredient

Word Origin for laudanum

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for laudanum

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.

laudanum in Medicine

laudanum

[lôd′n-əm]

A tincture of opium, formerly used as a drug.