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  1. laudanum love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A tincture of opium, formerly used as a drug.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Same as ladanum.
  2. n. Tincture of opium. See opium.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A tincture of opium, once widely used for various medical purposes and as a recreational drug.
  2. v. To add laudanum to (a drink or the like).
  3. v. rare To cause (a person) to be high on laudanum.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Tincture of opium, used for various medical purposes.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. narcotic consisting of an alcohol solution of opium or any preparation in which opium is the main ingredient

Etymologies

  1. Coined by Paracelsus for a tincture he made containing opium, from New Latin, from Latin laudare ("to praise"), or ladanum ("a gum resin"), from Ancient Greek λάδανον (ladanon). Originally the same word as ladanum, ladbdanum, compare French laudanum, Italian laudano, ladano. See ladanum. (Wiktionary)
  2. New Latin, perhaps alteration of Medieval Latin labdanum, labdanum; see labdanum. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “To be sure I did, to calm down the pain; and that was what I call laudanum and Mr Briscoe here calls opium.”

    Old Gold The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig

  • “Paracelsus created the narcotic opium, which he called laudanum, for his patients.”

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en]

  • “Is not it shocking to think,' continued she, after she had swallowed it, 'that in laudanum alone I find the means of supporting existence?”

    Belinda

  • “Meanwhile, the tansy powder would do Clifford no harm, and the laudanum was a proper treatment for this acute period.”

    Simon & Schuster: City of Glory

  • “Perhaps this wet cloth in the original, is what we now call laudanum; a potion that overspreads the faculties, as the wet cloth did the face of the royal patient; and the translator knew not how to render it.”

    Clarissa Harlowe

  • “A tin of Blue Pills, so labeled, and a bottle, not labeled, but recognizable, of black draught-laudanum, that is.”

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes

  • “And one of the things she did to help herself during this period was to take laudanum, which is a kind of opium derivative.”

    John Stuart Mill: A Biography

  • “As to the tincture of opium (commonly called laudanum) THAT might certainly intoxicate if a man could bear to take enough of it; but why?”

    Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

  • “The true gum opium, and laudanum, which is its tincture, are derived from Eastern”

    Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure

  • “When my friend came out of his dark room and bandages at the end of a month he had consumed twenty ounces of this preparation, whose probable distinction from the tincture known as laudanum I point out below in the note.”

    The Opium Habit

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. opiate

same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. chloral
  2. morphia
  3. belladonna
  4. strychnine
  1. quinine
  2. opium
  3. chloroform
  4. absinthe
  1. cocaine
  2. opiate
  3. hartshorn
  4. camphor
  1. ipecac
  2. arrack
  3. whiskey
  4. bourbon
  1. meperidine
  2. peppermint
  3. logwood
  4. cordrazine
  1. elixir
  2. digitalis

reverse dictionary (6)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. wine of opium
  1. lodanum
  1. opium-liniment
  1. lodomy
  1. drop
  1. dope

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. drug
  1. chemical

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  • dailyword This was used on Blakeney when his arm was amputated. Jun 16, 2012

  • ruzuzu "Paracelsus, born Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541) in Salzburg, Austria, a 16th century Swiss-German alchemist, discovered that the alkaloids in opium are far more soluble in alcohol than water. Having experimented with various opium concoctions, Paracelsus came across a specific tincture of opium that was of considerable use in reducing pain. He called this preparation laudanum, derived from the Latin verb laudare, to praise. Initially, the term 'laudanum' referred to any combination of opium and alcohol. Indeed, Paracelsus' laudanum was strikingly different from the standard laudanum of the 17th century and beyond. His preparation contained opium, crushed pearls, musk, amber, and other substances. One researcher has documented that 'Laudanum, as listed in the London Pharmacoepoeia (1618), was a pill made from opium, saffron, castor, ambergris, musk and nutmeg.'"

    --Wikipedia Sep 13, 2010

  • samoritan ...Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona
    For some California grass.
    Get back, get back.
    Get back to where you once belonged...
    Jun 12, 2007

  • seanahan Medicating in the sun
    Pinched doses of laudanum
    Longing for the old fecundity of my homeland Jun 11, 2007

  • samoritan Laudanum is opium and was once used as a pain reliever before people realized it was addictive. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was taking this when he went into a reverie and wrote "Kubla Kahn", one of the great poems of the late 17th century. Jun 11, 2007

  • inkhorn Poe's nepenthe and poison hemlock. Dec 14, 2006

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‘laudanum’ has been looked up 3761 times, loved by 4 people, added to 68 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.